It's not fully functional yet, when I applied to change the panels, they disappeared and I had to reboot by opening a terminal with right-click on the desktop and typing 'reboot'. And after boot there was just an empty panel at the bottom so I right-clicked on it and redefined it... and the 2 panels were back and working. I think I was choosing the Familiar or the Contemporary layouts.
Suggestion about MATE Tweak panel tab: add a button to go back to the Default panel.
Control Center
I can't scroll down the Control Center window, it stops scrolling in the middle/half
Files manager
Caja's left panel icons/text could be resizable by right-clicking, like Dolphin(KDE's files manager)
Desktop Icons Suggestion... Right-click on the desktop: a new menu item could be included like "Configure desktop", a direct link to MATE Tweak's Desktop tab, so people can easily customize the desktop.
Blue icons/theme
We have green, orange, and that pale brown icons. I think there should be at least one blue icon theme on the list with blue folders... there's no blue iconset installed by default, suggestion: add Elementary icon set or another popular one like Papirus with blue folders.
Lock screen
I think there's room for improvement here, it's too simplistic and kinda ugly to be honest.
I like what Iâm seeing but I think to say âfamiliarâ is a bit of a stumble due to one of the layouts being called that. Maybe rewording to âWhat feels most comfortable?â or âWhich desktop do you like most?â would be better?
I agree that the title could be rephrased to something else, this could be an issue for people translating, there are a lot of languages out there, Iâm not sure if it will make sense to everyone.
Maybe âChoose a layout belowâ, it doesnât need to be a question, or just a simple title âCustomize the desktopâ or similar.
Is the name of one layout Contempory instead of Contempo-ra-ry ? Itâs nice to try them all from the Welcome window but some things did not work; at some selection I lost all panels, no way to bring them back so I killed the vm.
Maybe âYou can choose a layout below:â would work? That makes it a choice on the userâs part.
It might also be a good idea to have a delay and then a revert or a choose another option button for people so complete newcomers understand that more than one option is available and that itâs completely permissible to play with them all to find the right one for their own personal use?
Thanks for the feedback about the title, I'll ensure the title gets a better name. I'm thinking of ditching the question for a statement -- as it is the Welcome program -- "A desktop for everyone's tastes".
The text underneath will be amended to:
Ubuntu MATE holds a wide range of customisation options, including the ability to offer a layout that is familiar towards your workflow. You can choose one as a starting point and make further changes to it later.
This should hopefully provide the hint to new MATE users that these are not "fixed" options and that it's possible to configure panels and applets later.
Definitely a typo
On my (relatively clean) VM of the 18.04 daily build, panels have been switching without a problem. There were only minor quirks like all windows minimising (usually when switching between dock-based panels).
This feature literally executes MATE Tweak, so you could see if switching panels works OK there normally.
Clicking a panel will apply it straight away, so I'm not sure on a delay timer/revert option in addition.
Welcome Screen Customize Panels: Redmond layout puts the panel on top instead of bottom
Drag and drop icons from the Familiar menu to the desktop or right-click the icon and 'pin to desktop' are not working, I rebooted and my desktop was like a work of art, look at the icons, specially Firefox, is huge for no reason... so they were being moved to the desktop but were not showing up, they were hidden(but the default system icons on the left were showing up normally, minus the Terminal that I think I've pinned):
OK, I really like that because it emphasizes choice. That's definitely what we want to encourage for those who want to explore and want to customize their environment. This is some great wording there.
Right, I understand that it applies immediately--I was making a suggestion that some sort of dialog be added as a 'don't panic' message similar to how changing display resolution works. This way if people make a change and hate it there's a button they can hit to immediately revert to whatever the previous layout was. I think it'd take some of the feeling of risk out.
Providing the capacity, on first boot, to choose panel layouts in the welcome screen is very impressive and entirely on-point with regards to providing choice.
This was way longer than Iâve expected at the beginning, sorry for the tons of screenshots, opinions and suggestions.
Itâs not the finished distro(beta) yet and things will certainly improve until the LTS gets launched. I hope some of the points mentioned above help improve the distro for everyone.
Fresh install of Ubuntu MATE 18.04 (alpha) on ASUS P8H67-M PRO, Samsung 850 EVO 150 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM, 17 GB swap area + all updates available via Software Updater
Control Center - MATE Tweak
missing Interface - Icons -> Show icons on buttons (used to disable this - icons on buttons is so 1990-ies)
Brisk menu can be added to the panel, but cannot be moved at all - it is not placed correctly
saving a customised Redmond layout is possible - restoring the saved layout is a mess - only some of the icons saved to the âquick launchâ panel do appear, others donât (same issue on Ubuntu MATE 17.10 for some months now)
I'm thinking of ditching the question for a statement -- as it is the Welcome program -- "A desktop for everyone's tastes".
