i want to start out by saying i am taking the time out to write this review and critique because i care a lot about this very slick distro and i hope my review will help with the feedback the devs may be looking for.

i love many things about the distro, the ability to add to dock, or desktop or uninstall an app from the launcher, the window previews on the dock, the app folders, etc. however these are the problems i've encountered and which i hope will be sorted before the stable release.

My Deepin 2014 is currently up to date (2/6/2014)

PROBLEMS


HARDWARE:

my testing computer is a lenovo s10-3t touchscreen netbook (1.6ghz atom, 2GB ram)

-brightness controls not working

DOCK:

-autohide works rather poorly, or not at all

-if many icons are added to the dock, the icons do not resize, like the deepin 2013 dock, but just go offscreen, and then the dock becomes unresponsive, i.e. Removing items from dock doesn’t work, or doesn’t work right.

-when too many icons are added, the dock doesn't autohide properly, but stays partly sticking out

-about half the times the system starts up without the full set of icons on the bottom and requires a log out or reboot (or several) to become normal

-clicking the dock icon of a hidden app sometimes does nothing, and sometimes brings up the program, but another click launches another instance rather than minimize again.

GENERAL APP LAUNCHER:

-sometimes the super key doesn't bring it up & neither does the dock's launcher icon work, requires relog or reboots to work

APPS:

-dplayer only plays a video file by keyboard shortcut and finding the file, not by double clicking a video file or drag and drop or anything. I am trying to play the deepin review file that came with the system and i can’t even get that to play now with any method.

-QQ is an old version and the camera doesn’t work. Now i realize this is a windows app running under wine, and this is the only way i know how to run it with a linux based OS, but it is a big deal in china and a deal breaker for the chinese people i know. I have tested it on 2 different computers. Is it possible to get a newer version of this very popular, albeit proprietary software in the repos?

IDEAS FOR IMPROVED USABILITY

-when the launcher is invoked, the favorites are shown, and to see the rest of the apps, you must click the small (little target area) apps icon at the top left. Only then are the other categories shown, but only as icons rather than written, which i think was much easier to navigate in deepin 2013. That text based categories paradigm should remain the same or have a ‘collapse to icons’ option. I don’t see the new style as any saving of space, it just makes it a little more abstract. People i know who are not very computer savvy have found it to be confusing.

-another thing i believe has been needlessly omitted in its current form is the search bar when the launcher is invoked. Compared to the 2013 launcher where you would clearly see the words written ‘type to search’ or something like that. I think that is very much still needed. The minimalism might appeal to some, but it’s not like a search field would make the launcher look like a cluttered mess.

-It would be nice to incorporate a “locked drag” feature to help moving things with a laptop trackpad.

-right click drag functionality would be sweet too. The way windows does it to move or copy here, etc.
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I may have forgotten a few things, but overall this distro is probably the nicest looking, and one of most ambitious out there. Keep up the great work.

1) So far no configuration options for the dock.
2) Can't remove trash from the dock.
3) the "d" icon is an inferior alternative to the notifications area of a panel.
4) The apps launcher icons are far too spaced for a desktop screen. This might be alright for a tablet - so provide us with some configuration options for those of us who use out computers for work rather than play.
5) The system settings pop-out dock (what is it called?) doesn't work after installing NVIDIA driver.
6) Opinion: It is a bad time to introduce such a radical change from 2013. LTS should be stable, rather than experimental. I think I can see what the developers are trying to do, but things are dumbed down too much. If however, the tablet/portable market is the project's aim then desktop users with large screens need to look elsewhere. Try Makulu or Linuxlite.

I just think it looks ugly and worse. I like how DDE worked before and now they are riping off OSX and trying to be the next pear os. I mean What!

I am from Deepin Team. What you said have been recorded by us.
We will not have so many changes on the desktop environment in the later release. By the way, our launcher supports the function of search. Please open launcher and enter Deepin on the keyboard.

yes i know it supports search, like all past releases, however, unlike the past releases, the omission of a search field WILL DEFINITELY confuse many people. even one of the youtube linux os reviewers couldn't figure it out which i found surprising.

thanks for listening

We can not resolve this problem, because it depends on drive you used.
We will improve in future.
We will report to our QA team.
We are adjusting now.
The tray is in the third icon from right to left.
Please set the shortcut key in Deepin Control Centre.

Please use Dmovie, dplayer stopped.
Did you use QQ? Yes, it's too old and we also have no idea.

Thanks for your advice and we will continue our efforts.