GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 632044
The term "activities" confuses users
Last modified: 2010-10-13 13:04:41 UTC
Gnome 3 will have some terrific enhancements to Virtual Desktops, calling the feature "Activities" instead. However, the KDE te4ma has been using the term "Activities" for a similar but different concept for about two years: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/358560-kde-45-desktop-activities-brings-new-meaning-to-organization http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=7671 http://temporaryland.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/my-kde-4-x-desktop-activities-tutorial/ Now that users and the tech community are familiar with Activities, Gnome is reusing the term for a very similar but different UI feature. This is already leading to confusion, and when Gnome 3 hits the mass market it will be a disaster trying to explain to users why Gnome Activities don't work like the established Activities feature. A prominent KDE developer explains the nuances of the situation here: http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2010/10/activities-as-homonyms.html I suggest that the term for improved Virtual Desktops be changes from Activities to something else in Gnome 3. Actions, perhaps? Areas? Functions? Desks? Endeavours? Any other ideas?
(In reply to comment #0) > Now that users and the tech community are familiar with Activities, Gnome is > reusing the term for a very similar but different UI feature. It's worth mentioning that, AFAIK, we came with the term Activity before KDE started using it. It was in the original gnome-shell design back in 2008.
Interesting, thanks Vincent. I believe that the KDE 4.0 release in January 2008 included Activities (rudimentary as it was at the time).
> I believe that the KDE 4.0 release in January 2008 included Activities > (rudimentary as it was at the time). KDE 4.0 indeed contained rudimentary activities, but the "Add Activity" menu entry was added a few weeks later. Some key dates for the use of the word "activities": 14 April 2008: "Add Activity" button implemented in KDE Plasma http://websvn.kde.org/?view=revision&revision=796754 29 April 2008: KDE 4.1 Alpha 1 released http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.1-alpha1.php 29 May 2008: First detailed press reports on KDE's activity concept http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/05/hands-on--plasma-continues-to-advance-in-kde-4-1-beta-1.ars 29 July 2008: KDE 4.1.0 released http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.1/ 11 October 2008: "Activities menu" concept added to GNOME wiki during the Boston GNOME Hackfest http://live.gnome.org/action/diff/Boston2008/GUIHackfest/WindowManagementAndMore?action=diff&rev1=1&rev2=2 Of course, it doesn't really matter whether the participants of the GNOME Boston Hackfest were inspired by KDE or not. The only important questions are: Are there any good alternative names for GNOME's use of "activity"? Are there any plans in the GNOME Shell to copy the key aspects of the KDE Plasma Activity concept in the future? And does the GNOME Shell team even care at all about user confusion? Olaf
A) Activities actually *aren't* virtual desktops in GNOME 3. The button "Activities" takes you to the "Activities Overview" which shows all your open windows, your recent files, your applications. The things that you are doing or might want to do - your "activities". B) While it's unfortunate that KDE and GNOME are using Activities in a different sense, I don't think either KDE or GNOME has optimizing for users switching back and forth between the two environments as a primary goal. And there are only so many different words in a language that can be used, so some overlap is going to happen. So, I don't think "who was using the word first" really matters. We're not planning any design changes here before GNOME 3.