Competitive Analysis
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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 Compiz Fusion 15 2.1 Introduction................................ 15 2.1.1 The beginning : XGL....................... 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 window manager, and Compiz Fusion, which is a window manager used in Linux 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 Operating System (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, XFCE, XGL, Beryl, Windows XP window manager, Aero, Mac OS X window manager. 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 Ratpoison, WMII, XMonad. ). 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 icon 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 menu 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.