Bug 133981

Summary:	Almost all modules require too much screen space
Product:	[Applications] systemsettings	Reporter:	Joonas Koivunen <joonas.koivunen>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	normal	CC:	finex
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	unspecified
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Joonas Koivunen 2006-09-12 20:19:18 UTC

Version:           0.2 (using KDE 3.5.4, Kubuntu Package 4:3.5.4-0ubuntu2~dapper1 )
Compiler:          Target: i486-linux-gnu
OS:                Linux (i686) release 2.6.15-26-386

Systemsettings modules like for example:
 Personal > Appearance > Fonts

Use way too much of the available screen for so little amount of "information" (changing fonts in this case). On my laptop the window takes minimum of 945x620 pixels, which doesn't make any sense.

By minimum I mean the least size, when there are no scroll bars. Scroll bars on systemsettings IMO look very stupid and unattractive.

Possible reasons for "Fonts" taking so much space are that the "Colors" widget reserves that much of space, and other modules are just adjusting to that space.. 

However, even the module "Colors" shouldn't need the 945x620 window. There is just way too much "air" in every widget, I can't really guess what widget requires that much space.

Could it be that every developer is using some 1600x1200 resolution screen? :) I think that the program should use as little as possible screen estate.

Comment 1 DG 2008-06-25 20:25:16 UTC

I just installed KDE 4.1 Beta 2 on my Linux desktop -- which happens to be a 800x600 virtual machine. The resolution changing dialog (System Settings > Computer Administration > Display > Size & Orientation) was MUCH larger than the available _workspace_ (read: including the default panel) to reach the Apply button. I had to resort to tabbing and pressing enter ;)

This is a major usability problem.
To confirm, simply install 4.1 beta 2 and open the aforementioned dialog and check out how big the dialog gets. I've noticed this in nearly all of the dialogs -- the scrollbar fix is welcomed, even tho it's "kind of" ugly.

Thanks,
-DHG

Comment 2 FiNeX 2008-11-13 22:44:08 UTC

@Downhill: what you're saying has already been reported on another bug report.
@Joonas: systemsettings in kde3 (kubuntu) is no more mantained, moreover kubuntu has adopted kde4, so I'm closing this as wontfix.

P.S: the new systemsettings doesn't suffer anymore to this type of problems. (fortunatly :-) )