GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 313524
Change the default appearance of the clock
Last modified: 2015-03-24 13:00:56 UTC
Please describe the problem: By default, the panel clock displays the full date and time. The panel appears rather cluttered as a result. A "cleaner" appearance might use the following settings: Clock type: 12 hour Show seconds: off Show date: off Use UTC: off Consider that the user can already find the current date by hovering over or clicking the clock. Steps to reproduce: Actual results: Expected results: Does this happen every time? Other information:
12 hour format shouldn't be used by default. 12 hour vs 24 hour should depend on the locale.
Peter: it already depends on the locale. Simon: I always wondered why there's the date by default too. So I remove it for now. Let's see if someone is unhappy ;-)
Thanks!
Dudes, this is crazy. One of the first things my MIL said when she started using Ubuntu on her laptop was, "Oh, i like how it shows the date all the time, that is really handy!" It's a nice touch which makes people smile, and doesn't significantly contribute to 'clutter'. Please revert this (we'll be doing so in Ubuntu).
I have to agree, showing the date is a nice touch, you're asuming people will find it when hovering over the clock, which isn't handy.
I could show you screenshots of all the major GNOME distros and I think you would agree that there is no clutter on the panel, even at 800x600. Oh, and tooltips are bad and should be avoided, due to them being not easily discoverable.
FLAMEWAR!!! :-) It's not a matter of clutter. It makes the panel feel cleaner, IMHO. Maybe one problem is that the date format used is really broken, or it's a i18n issue. But english people are used to see "Thu Jan 5" (or whatever the format is in english). I know "Jeu 5 jan" is not looking good in French. And fixing it would mean having longer strings, which would mean real clutter. That being said, I'm okay to revert it if some other people not coming from #ubuntu-devel complain :-) (setting milestone to 2.14.x)
(In reply to comment #7) > That being said, I'm okay to revert it if some other people not coming from > #ubuntu-devel complain :-) Some people are coming from #ubuntu-desktop, does that count? :)
I've patched JDS back to the original format, and we'll probably stick with that.
I agree with jdub, I've had people comment on how nice a feature having the date displayed is. I use it all the time.
*** Bug 331628 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I am going to provide a real world use case for this one: I am talking with somebody on the phone, in this case my ex. She asks me what day/date it is. Without having to move my hands, I can tell her, as the day and date are displayed. I did not have to break my concentration and use the computer, rather than just completing the task at hand (in this case telling my ex the day and date). So in summary, this change is bad because it forces users to know something about interacting with the computer (either by hover tooltip or clicking), rather than just doing their task.
(In reply to comment #7) > That being said, I'm okay to revert it if some other people not coming from > #ubuntu-devel complain :-) I'm a Fedora user, currently. Assuming both Gman and I qualify as people, have we met your prerequisites? ;-)
(In reply to comment # > That being said, I'm okay to revert it if some other people not coming from > #ubuntu-devel complain :-) I like having the date there. I *never* know what today's date is, and it's very useful. Having to hover on Windows or open the menu on OS X seems a bit tedious by comparison. It's also a nice visual clue that you'll get the calendar when you click on it. How extreme will the clutter be for some languages and scripts? (I'm not from é#ubuntu-devel, by the way!)
Vincent, can the date be readded by default in 2.18 or is it too late?
I got bribed and it's back now.
:-(
The rationale is that Sun and Ubuntu are patching this, and probably some of the other main distributors of GNOME are doing so. So it's just useless to diverge from downstream.