Hi!
I noticed on youtube that after the installation the welcome window has this part where you can either enable third party repository or disable it. However, I don’t understand which of these settings is the one which actually enable them.
So if the setting is as shown in the picture, does that mean that if I press next now, it will enable third-party repositories?
If you click on “Enable Third-Party Repositories” it will enable them. Have a look which 3rd party repos are enabled:
That guide doesn’t seem to help since the guide says nothing about this toggle and in which position third party repos will actually be enabled…
@computersavvy 's comment in Welcome Screen Enable/Distable third-party repositories - #4 by computersavvy shows how to enable/disable them from Gnome Software
Since the enable/disable toggle doesn’t seem to be very intuitive, it could be good to report it to devs and request a change of the UI element to a “0/1 switch” as implemented in Gnome Software
So if its blue (as shown in my picture) and I hit next, it will enable third party repos?
It would be nice if there was on/off toggle next to the text because people can misunderstand when it is actually in “on” position.
I agree
No. The big blue button does what it says it does, and the text clearly labels its action.
I did a test install to verify this.
That big blue button that is labeled “Enable Third Party Repositories” will change color to gray and reads “Disable Third Party Repositories” after it is clicked. The button is a toggle and its label tells the user what it does…
It is large and blue and the text clearly says what it is intended to do. When it is clicked it shows the change.
I don’t see how its purpose can be misunderstood and any changes would simply detract from the quite obvious purpose.
The ‘next’ button clearly tells the system to move to the next screen “without doing any additional changes” as is the common usage of a next button on screens within most apps.
Well i misunderstood it, and many other people misunderstood it aswell, as i’m reading the forums. The setting is very badly designed. If something can be misunderstood, there is a clear chance that it WILL be misunderstood.
I took matter to my own hands aswell and actually installed it to my virtualbox. When I clicked the blue button it turned gray and says “disable third party repositories” or something. After this I clicked next and went to the gnome software center and checked the installation sources and repos, i noticed that it seems to have enabled the third party repos. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
That is the expected response. You can also enable them directly from within gnome software.
I don’t feel a big button that has text saying “if you click me I will do this” is a bad design. Each to their own opinion.
I see. Thank you for your response.
I feel like some kind of on/off toggle would be nice next to text box which says “Enable third party respositories”. That is usually the way settings are presented in gnome. But that it just my opinion at least.
I’m tossing in another, “actually, you’re wrong.”
I’m here because the default is not intuitive. If it were, I wouldn’t have searched for this thread.
Suppose I have an amplifier with a backlit power button, the button in its “off” state would be greyed. Turn the amp on, and the power button becomes illuminated. To me, the first of this pair (grey is shown) would lead me to assume something is disabled.
If you have something with two states, you might want to show its current state. That’s why a Webex window with a big blue “chat” bubble is illuminated when the chat window is open and the “video” button is blue when your camera is on.
So, if you see a blue (illuminated) button stating “Enable”, using the intuition of the two prior paragraphs, you might think that is the moment that when you press “Next”, the third-party repos will be enabled. Making that button grey clearly indicates you do not want it enabled anymore, which is evidenced by the word “Disable” being part of the current state. It would probably be slightly clearer (and contrary to the current behavior) if those words were “Enabled” and “Disabled” instead, with a trailing d.
I’m certain you can find many examples/opinions on StackOverflow, HN, Reddit, and personal blogs of developers, where people debate the best layout for buttons in general. You can also find hundreds of upvotes on a discussion about this exact Fedora button.
Very simple tweaks (converting it to a check box; not dynamically changing the text) would improve its comprehensibility. It’s fine that Fedora wants to enforce UI uniformity, and confusing new users in the first few minutes of a Linux installation is the side effect.
With all that in mind, I would call a collective opinion a judgment. “Each to their own opinion,” sure… Maybe some people liked the Game of Thrones finale. Here, the available evidence shows that this button is confusing enough to prompt users to post/comment about it.
(It’s possible this has changed in F40. I just installed F38 as that’s the certification for the machine I’m using.)
I found the button confusing too in a different manner (mainly what exactly it enabled) and didn’t bother looking further into it. I’m used to installing RPM Fusion’s free and nonfree RPMs directly post-install.
I know I want nothing to do with Flatpaks and assume that 3rd-party repo button also enabled Flathub.
I didn’t even consider the Flathub/Flatpak repos being part of this button. One of the first things I do on a new non-Nvidia install is disable everything—in particular, Flatpak—except h264. Maybe better for my future installs is to skip third-party repos (aka leave the button blue) and just add the one or two that I need.
The button is blue and says enable
When you click it the button turns grey and says disable.
To me that is very clear though somewhat contrary to the normal in the gnome settings panel that uses grey to indicate off or disabled and blue to indicate on or enabled.
To make the links red (off) and green (on) would make it clear, also for new Gnome users. At least for users with no visual difficulties.
For some users, read and green are basically the same color.
Some users are color blind and see different colors the same. Red & Green are common which is one reason traffic lights are positioned as they are so those individuals can identify what is meant by the positioning of the light as well as color for most of us.
As far as the colors for the button being discussed here the text is also a trigger.
One says “enable third party repos” and switches to “disable third party repos” as well as changing color.
I see no incentive to change the colors.
Additionally almost every other ‘switch’ in gnome configs use gray & blue to signal off & on.
Except when they aren’t https://gizmodo.com/the-story-behind-syracuses-upside-down-traffic-light-1545301615.
