Competitive Analysis

Christophe Pincemaille

October 24, 2008

University: Cork Institute of Technology Department: Department of Computer Science Module: Human Computer Interaction Lecturer: Paul Rothwell 0.0 CONTENTS Competitive analysis

Contents

1 Mac OS X Window manager2 1.1 System basis...... 2 1.2 Windows...... 5 1.3 Applications...... 8 1.3.1 Installation and uninstallation...... 8 1.3.2 Access to applications...... 9 1.4 Virtual desktops...... 11 1.5 Other elements...... 12

2 Fusion 15 2.1 Introduction...... 15 2.1.1 The beginning : ...... 15 2.1.2 From XGL to Compiz Fusion...... 15 2.2 The windows...... 16 2.3 Virtual desktops...... 18 2.4 Other elements...... 20

Christophe Pincemaille 1 HCI - CIT Abstract

The objective of this paper is to compare two existing window managers : Mac OS X , and Compiz Fusion, which is a window manager used in distributions. This paper makes a competitive analysis between the two of them, comparing the GUI 1. After an introduction to build up the context, Mac OS X will be analyzed. Then, the case Compiz Fusion will be treated.

1Graphic User Interface 0.0 CONTENTS Competitive analysis

Introduction

In Human-Computer Interactions (HCI), the interface of the (OS) may be one of the most important. Indeed, it is through the OS window manager that the human will have the first and the most common interactions with the machine. All the software interfaces will come as a upper layout and can make a user satisfied or not, annoyed or not, of the global behavior of its computer. But if the basis layout, the operating system’s one, is already not intuitive, easily understandable, user-friendly, it will be very hard for the user to be satisfied of the general using. Nowadays, there are quite a lot of window managers. We can name some of them: KDE, Gnome, , XGL, Beryl, Windows XP window manager, Aero, Mac OS . . . It would be too long to compare and describe all these window managers, so it appears more relevant to study sort of a “family” of windows managers. There, we are talking of windows managers which have the most possible things in common. Consequently, in that competitive analysis, we will compare the Mac OS X window manager with Compiz Fusion, which are two window managers with advanced graphical effects. After having explained what are these window managers and why we chose to compare them, we will study each of them more precisely, which will lead to a comparison of relevant elements.

Christophe Pincemaille 1 HCI - CIT 1.1 System basis Competitive analysis

Chapter 1

Mac OS X Window manager

The version of Mac OS X we will work with is Leopard, which version number is 10.5.

1.1 System basis

Mouse-oriented GUI The window manager of Mac OS X is a mouse-oriented GUI. That means that to navigate through the screen, you can do it by a cursor, move thanks to the mouse. This stands in opposition to minimalist window managers, like terminals, or like keyboard-oriented window managers (some examples of which are , WMII, . . . ).

Figure 1.1: The Mac OS X desktop

Christophe Pincemaille 2 HCI - CIT 1.1 System basis Competitive analysis

Strengths this is more visual, so it is more intuitive and more useful for most of people. Indeed, in such an environment, learning can be done by seeing the graphical metaphors, whereas in a command-line environment, real learning with a manual, a documentation or a lecture is needed.

Weaknesses for very advanced user, it could be better to do all with the keyboard. Indeed, for an advanced person in command-line, it is quicker to use keyboard rather than take the mouse, make the cursor on the good location, then click. . .

Oriented drag-and-drop Moreover, Mac OS is quite “oriented drag-and-drop”, that is to say, a lot of actions can be done by drag-and-drop, and it is even normal to do it that way.

Strengths in general, drag and drop is very understandable, so it is inutitive. In- deed, it is comparable to real world, when you pick something to put it in another location (example : you pick a paper to put it in a bin).

Weaknesses because of that, someting like “cut and paste” is not available in the Finder for example, which can be annoying for people who are used to that.

But we will have the occasion to view that in the following parts, through some examples.

UNIX-based system Mac OS X is a UNIX-based system, like Linux or the BSD1. That will imply some elements on usability, features, and possibilities – to call programs, for example.

Strengths it is very useful for advanced users. Indeed, there is the possibility to use command-line software, that is more adapted for certain kind of use than graphical ones. Moreover, it enables to call programs through the command line, which can be more straightforward than seeking an representing the application, through menus. . .

Weaknesses there is not really weaknesses here, because people who don’t need command line just don’t use it.

Downloads and documents folders By default on Mac OS X, there are two folders in the user’s home : download and documents. We assume that the user wants to see a document from the Internet, for example a PDF document, by clicking directly on “open” and not “dowload / register as”. Then, the document is downloaded on the download folder, and not downloaded in a temporary folder of the OS like on Windows.

1Berkeley Software Distribution, family of OS based on UNIX. OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD are current BSD descendants.

Christophe Pincemaille 3 HCI - CIT 1.1 System basis Competitive analysis

Strengths The good point is that enables the user to recover the document after having closed it. Another very useful thing is that by default, accesses to these folders are put in the Dock 2 (cf. figure 1.2 on page4).

Weaknesses But the drawback is that, if the user wants to see a lot of documents without keeping them, it obliges him/her to periodically empty this folder – and if there are some other documents wanted to be kept, is can be a long and fastidious sort. . .

Figure 1.2: The download and documents folders, in the dock. The download folder is expanded.

The trash When deleting a file by a or a keyboard shortcut, the file goes in the trash. The trash is in the Dock, which gave the user a direct access to recover the files, or to really delete them.

Figure 1.3: The trash, on the doc

In older versions of Mac OS, you could also unmount devices by dragging-and- dropping the device icon into the trash. This was not very intuitive, because it could gave the impression to the user that what was in the device would be drop to the

2To have more information on what the Dock is, see 1.3.2, where this is explained

Christophe Pincemaille 4 HCI - CIT 1.2 Windows Competitive analysis trash. In Mac OS 10.5, when you drag a device icon, the trash images turns into an “eject” image, which is more intuitive.

Figure 1.4: The trash turns into an eject symbol, for a device

1.2 Windows

In Mac OS, like in most of the non-minimalistic window managers, open applications are organized in windows.

Figure 1.5: Close, minimize, maximize buttons

Close a window To close a window, you can clic on the red button with a cross. Strengths This is a good point, because red is quite appropriate, and the cross symbol too. Moreover, it is discrete, which is quite good because it doesn’t disturb the user during work.

Weaknesses But the non-intuitive thing, comparing to Linux or Windows, is that clicking the “close” button closes the window, but not the application. This wouldn’t be really a problem if the closing of the last window of an application would close the application itself. But this doesn’t happen, and you can have an application open with no window. To close the current window, you can also use the keyboard shortcut CMD + W (for “Window”). This is interesting, because the keyboard shortcut is intuitive, and easy of access (the CMD and the W keys are not so far).

Christophe Pincemaille 5 HCI - CIT 1.2 Windows Competitive analysis

Non-saved documents Finally, when a document (text document for example) is modified but not saved, the “close” button fills with a black point.

Strengths This is good because it gives the user a sign that the document is not yet saved. And if the user still closes the window, a message will enable the user to save the work, which is also a good thing.

Weaknesses here there is not really any drawback.

Figure 1.6: Close button when not registered

Maximize The maximize button theoretically enables the user to maximize or not the window. But in Mac OS, by clicking on the maximize button, the window doesn’t fit itself to the borders of the screen, like in Windows or Linux. It just fit itself with another size, changeable by the user.

Strengths It can be good because the user can chose two sizes of its window, and switch by this button ;

Weaknesses but it doesn’t seem very useful, when an automatic fit of the window to the screen borders would have been quite useful.

Switching of windows and applications In Mac OS, windows and applications are two very different things. Thus, the keyboard shortcut to switch of application (CMD + TAB) doesn’t enable the user to switch between the windows of a same application. By CMD + TAB, you can also switch to an application without any window. To switch from a window to another, you can use a Mac OS functionality, which makes a mosa¨ıcwith all the opened windows. Then you clic on the window you want to go to, and by a graphical effect, it goes to the first plan. This functionality is generally accessible by moving the mouse on a corner of a screen ; but it can be changed in the settings panel.

Strengths This feature is very useful for the drag-and-drop : when dragging some- thing, you go to the screen corner, then place the cursor on the good windows, and that’s it (cf. figure 1.8 on page8).

Christophe Pincemaille 6 HCI - CIT 1.3 Windows Competitive analysis

Figure 1.7: Switching of application by the keyboard shortcut CMD + TAB.

Weaknesses there, it doesn’t seem that there is any particular weakness.

Finally, you can also install a piece of software, which enables the user to switch of windows by the shortcut ALT + TAB.

Control bar In Mac OS, the control bar of applications is always visible, always on the top of the screen, and it is not changeable by the user.

Strengths The good thing is that, consequently, this bar is surely always visible, and the user will be able to access the commands (it can’t be out of the screen).

Weaknesses But form another point of view, you can have the command bar of an application displayed, with not window of this application. So you can believe to be on the desktop, without any application (except the base application, the Finder), and actually you are on the application. So you don’t find the Finder’s commands, which could be annoying.

Actually, the user has just to figure out that, what tells you that you are inside an application is not the presence of absence of windows, but the nature of that command bar. Moreover, the application name is always written on this bar.

Strengths So there is a little learning to do ;

Weaknesses but it is quite easy to figure this out.

Christophe Pincemaille 7 HCI - CIT 1.3 Applications Competitive analysis

Figure 1.8: Displaying miniatures of all the windows, to be able to switch

1.3 Applications

On Mac OS, applications are files of app format, which is very straightforward (“app” stands for “application”).

1.3.1 Installation and uninstallation Install an application On Mac OS, it is particularly easy to install an application. To install an application, you have to have a file of dmg format. By double-clicking on it, a virtual drive will be automatically mounted. There is a system folder Applications in Mac OS. To install the application, the user has just to make the application icon, which is in the virtual device, dragged and drop the the Applications folder. And that’s it.

Strengths This is very quick, user-friendly and very simple. That is particularly adapted to novice users, but still doesn’t prevent advanced users to have a more deep access to things. And it is very powerful : you put the application in your folder, and it works.

Weaknesses the only weakness would be the concept of “virtual device” ; but as all is automatic. . .

And sometimes, you have even directly the .app file directly, without mounting the virtual device (this is the case for Filezilla, for example).

Christophe Pincemaille 8 HCI - CIT 1.3 Applications Competitive analysis

Figure 1.9: Installation of a piece of software

Uninstall an application To uninstall, it is pretty much the same. You have to go to the Applications folder, and drag and drop the application you don’t want any more to the trash. And that’s it. You don’t have to follow complicated procedures and suppress things everywhere in your disk. It is intuitive and straightforward.

1.3.2 Access to applications The dock : a quick access to applications In Mac OS, you can access to your applications through the Dock. This is a place where are shortcuts to the applications, and to some folders (like downloads, docu- ments, trash, or whatever folder you want). You can easily add or suppress appli- cations and folders from it.

Strengths This is a easy thing, because it enables the user to have a simple, quick access to its applications, without having to go through menus, and a great number of clicks. . .

Weaknesses Maybe the absence of menus will disappoint some people. . .

Graphical effects There could be a problem when there are a lot of applications, because the vertical size of the dock reduces, in order to be able to place all the applications in the same

Christophe Pincemaille 9 HCI - CIT 1.4 Applications Competitive analysis

Figure 1.10: The Mac OS Dock width. To solve that problem, there is a graphical effect in the dock : when making the cursor come through the dock, icons magnify themselves.

Strengths The size of the magnification, and the kind of effect can be parametrized in the preferences panel. So that is beautiful and very useful. Moreover, it is something that can help for accessibility to people who are vision impaired.

Weaknesses Some people might don’t like the fancy effects, finding them not so beautiful. But in that case, they could deactivate it, so it is not really a weakness. The weakness would be to find where to deactivate it, but the Mac OS panel control has a powerful search box.

Figure 1.11: Graphical effect of the Dock

Christophe Pincemaille 10 HCI - CIT 1.5 Virtual desktops Competitive analysis

1.4 Virtual desktops

Multiple desktops Mac OS X window manager is a multiple . Indeed, there are four desktops. Strengths This is very useful to do some tasks in parallel without mixing things. This is also useful be able to interrupt a task the user were doing, in order to do another thing completely different. Weaknesses but for very novice user, who don’t have the utility of more than one desktop, it could appear a little bit complicated.

Changing of desktop by graphical effect To switch from a desktop to another, there is a graphical effect, generally accessible by putting the mouse in a corner of the screen. There is also a keyboard key which makes this screen appear (that can be changed). It makes miniatures of the four desktops appear. Then, by clicking on one, you go to this desktop.

Figure 1.12: The miniatures of the four desktops

Changing of desktop by keyboard shortcut You can also switch by keyboard shortcut (cf. figure 1.13 on page 12). You can change it via the preferences panel, but in general it is CTRL+ARROW. ARROW can be left, right, up and down, as the desktops are represented as in the miniatures (cf. figure 1.12 on page 11).

Christophe Pincemaille 11 HCI - CIT 1.5 Other elements Competitive analysis

Figure 1.13: Switching of desktop by keyboard shortcut

1.5 Other elements

There are a lot of other elements that can be evoked. We will just see some of them.

The dashboard The dashboard (cf. figure 1.14 on page 13) is a screen which can appear or disappear by the action of the user. Generally, it is accessible through a corner of the screen, or by the Dock, like an application. On that screen, are little applications called widgets. There are a lot of them on the internet. Generally these are useful things like weather, clocks, information about the computer (CPU load, disks. . . ), notepads, information about markets, TV. . .

Strengths it can be very useful, for people who need often access to some little services that the hour, note quickly something to remind of, . . .

Weaknesses people who don’t need it and would not have succeeded in inactivating it could find that annoying and useless.

Searches Mac OS X default system, and a lot of Mac OS X applications integrate a search box. It is very useful to find things, especially when you have a lot of data. Moreover, when you type some words, you have a cross which appears on the right side of the box. By clicking that cross, all the current content of the box disappear, letting a

Christophe Pincemaille 12 HCI - CIT 1.5 Other elements Competitive analysis

Figure 1.14: The dashboard, with a lot of widgets blank input. This is very useful when you have to try some expressions, because it avoid you to select to whole current expression, suppress it, and retype the new one - with all the slowness of that has, and all the little annoying problems which can be caused by a mistake in selection. . .

Figure 1.15: The finder search box

The funny thing is that you can go to the Apple website, and there is a search box with also the little cross !

Preview Another thing very useful in Mac OS X is the preview of documents. In the finder, when you have selected a document, you can view quickly it, by striking the key SPACE. A graphical effect will display a preview. Then type SPACE to close the preview.

Strengths It avoids the user to open maybe a huge application just to know if this is the good file. . . So it makes a non negligible gain of time. Besides, people may enjoy the fancy effect.

Christophe Pincemaille 13 HCI - CIT 1.5 Other elements Competitive analysis

Weaknesses People who accidentally and unexpectedly make it appear could find that thing, popping up, quite annoying.

Figure 1.16: The preview of a PDF document

Christophe Pincemaille 14 HCI - CIT 2.2 Introduction Competitive analysis

Chapter 2

Compiz Fusion

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 The beginning : XGL Originally, a project was set up, named “XGL”. It was an open source project of window manager. Its first implementation has been initiated by Novell [4]. XGL is a compositing window manager, based on OpenGL. It works with Xorg, which is the window manager of Linux. XGL is available on several linux distributions, as Gentoo, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu [2]. Its first implementation is named “Xglx”. XGL provides graphics effects, to make the desktop and the operating system GUI more fancy, user-friendly, beautiful, and plenty of 3D effects. For example, on of the main features of OpenGL is the 3D cube : in Linux, you can have more than one desktop, and with XGL, the desktops are faces of a 3D solid (generally a cube, for four desktops). The aim was also to manage better the GUI, calling the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) instead of the Computer Processing Unit (CPU), whenever it was possible [4].

2.1.2 From XGL to Compiz Fusion There are several window managers which come from XGL ; we can enumerate Beryl, Compiz, and Compiz Fusion. So all of these window managers are linked, and they are all open-source. Compiz aims to make Linux GUI more easy to use, more inutitive, and more accessible for people with special needs [1]. It was the first evoluated manager, and have been developed with Xglx. Beryl is a fork of Compiz project [3]. It contains a lot of plugins. It was used in particular in Ubuntu, which is a .

Christophe Pincemaille 15 HCI - CIT 2.2 The windows Competitive analysis

2.2 The windows

Closing a window To close a window, it is the same thing as in : clic on the cross in the top-right of the window, and it closes. If it is the last window of the application, it closes the application.

Strengths That is a good thing, because it is intuitive that when there is no win- dows left of the application, the application is not longer opened.

Weaknesses no real weakness actually.

Besides, it is possible to close the current window by a keyboard shortcut : ALT + F4. In Compiz Fusion, there are a lot of graphic effects for closing a window, or a menu. Windows disappear, or break themselves in little pieces that fade, or turn quickly and disappear. . .

Strengths these can be fancy and funny effects ;

Weaknesses but as it is at each window, and as some effects are quite violent for the eyes, it can become unpleasant.

Maximize and minimize windows When maximizing a window, this takes the whole screen, and sicks to the border of the screen. This is interesting because the user doesn’t have to drag the corner of the window to make it stick with the screen border. In Compiz Fusion, the maximization of windows is made with some effects. They are short effects, so it can be pleasant. In that, some people may appreciate that, some other may not. For the minimization, is is the same thing: fancy effects. For example, the window can start from the bottom bar, then going up, “de-folding”. The point that it comes from the location where the window was minimized is good because logical, even if this principle is already used in most of the window managers.

Switch between windows The only possibility to switch between windows is to use the keyboard shortcut ALT + TAB. Doing that, all the windows reduce themselves to miniatures, like in the windows miniatures of Mac OS X. But windows organize themselves in a round circle, and by typing TAB, it makes the circle turn, of one application each time.

Strengths It is good to have the preview of all the windows, because it enables the user to figure out directly what it is.

Weaknesses But it is a pity that this is only accessible by shortcut, because prob- ably that a lot of people who don’t know the shortcut will not use this feature.

Christophe Pincemaille 16 HCI - CIT 2.2 The windows Competitive analysis

Figure 2.1: Windows switch

View something in another window There is another thing very useful in Compiz Fusion, related to windows. It is not made in order to switch of windows, but in order to see something in another window. Compiz Fusion enables the user to “pick” the corner of a maximized window, by clicking on it, and drag the corner in order to see what is behind the window, as it would be a sheet of paper.

Figure 2.2: See what is behind the maximized current window

Christophe Pincemaille 17 HCI - CIT 2.3 Virtual desktops Competitive analysis

Preview windows Another effect which is interesting, is the preview of the windows. When the user puts the cursor on reduced windows, in the bottom bar, a preview of the window is displayed.

Strengths it is good to see more quickly of which window it is question, and avoid reading the little characters of the window title.

Weaknesses but it could be also annoying, when you know which windows you have reduced, because you don’t need this information, and it makes things appear unexpectedly.

Figure 2.3: Window preview

2.3 Virtual desktops

Linux virtual desktops The multi-desktop concept is very interesting, because it enables to make different things, to organize the applications, to store somewhere pending applications, and so forth. Linux is, like in Mac OS X, a multi virtual desktops environment. But here the user can change the number of virtual desktops (between 1 and 20).

Strengths It could be interesting to fit with the user’s needs ;

Weaknesses but in general, it is useless to have more than 4 desktops. Indeed, doing 3 or 4 really different things in the same time seems very difficult.

Switch between desktops In Compiz Fusion, one of the greatest features is the mean to switch of desktops. The desktops are faces of a solid, generally it is a cube, for four desktops. So by shortcuts that are combinations of keyboard and mouse keys, the user can zoom

Christophe Pincemaille 18 HCI - CIT 2.4 Virtual desktops Competitive analysis back, then see the cube, and then make it turn, to be able to see the faces. When the user has reached the face (ie the desktop) wanted, he juste have to release the keys, which makes a zoom to go to the selected desktop.

Strengths This is a very fancy and beautiful way to change of desktop. Besides, it has the advantage of being very visual, it gives a representation to people, which helps generally to use the system.

Weaknesses But learning all the shortcuts might be a little difficult, for maybe a lot of people.

Figure 2.4: The 3D cube

There is another mean to change of desktops, still trough shortcuts. It makes the desktops appear in line. The user just have to click on the one wanted. Here it is quite the same thing : that seems very useful, but in the condition to know the shortcuts, and to remember them.

Figure 2.5: Switching of desktop

Christophe Pincemaille 19 HCI - CIT 2.4 Other elements

More and more effects There are a lot of furthermore effects in Compiz Fusion. For example, when you move a window, the window change of shape with the movement (cf. figure 2.6 on page 20). Or you can also make water or fire effects on the screen (cf. figure 2.7 on page 21).

Strengths it could be quite funny ;

Weaknesses but clearly, these effects have any utility.

Figure 2.6: During the window moving

Configuration All the settings, activation or not, of all the effects of Compiz Fusion are configurable in a panel (cf. figure 2.8 on page 21).

Strengths this is good for users because it is very flexible, and enables them to activate only effects they really want, and not impose them plenty of annoying effects.

Weaknesses the problem is that this panel is very huge, there are many tabs with many things. So it is too complicated to be very useful and really used. People would have to spend too much time on it. 2.4 Other elements Competitive analysis

Figure 2.7: Water effects

Figure 2.8: Compiz Fusion configuration panel

Christophe Pincemaille 21 HCI - CIT 2.4 Other elements Competitive analysis

Conclusion

We have studied two window managers. These window managers have the particu- larity to have a lot of graphic effects. For graphic effects, some very important things are time of effects, usability of effects, and quality of metaphors used (down key to go to the ”desktop at the bottom” on Mac OS X, changing of window shape when moving it on Compiz Fusion. . . ). Another important thing is parametrability. Mac OS X GUI is less parametrable but prevents the user from itself : when there are huge possibilities in changing design, possibility to make eventually bad design, tiring design (for the eyes, ), and to lose a lot of time when spending a lot of time to change parameters. An we can finish by understandability : Mac OS X have clearly fewer effects than Compiz Fusion, but that are powerful, quick, not annoying, and more of all, each effect has a clear utility.

Christophe Pincemaille 22 HCI - CIT 2.4 BIBLIOGRAPHY Competitive analysis

Bibliography

[1] OpenSuse. Compiz. http://en.opensuse.org/Compiz, June 2008.

[2] Mat Caughron. The architecture of your next linux desktop: Xorg and xgl. http://www.olug.org/presentations/June2006/ XGL-Caughron-Presentation.pdf, June 2006. slide-show presentation.

[3] Erik Eloff. What is the beryl project? http://beryl-project.org/, 2006. Home of the Beryl website.

[4] Richard Samson. Les environnements de bureau 3D. http://www.linagora. com/IMG/pdf/miniconf-bureau-3d-sl2007.pdf. slide-show presentation.

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