hi,
ive just got to run the client, and didnt informed me about the topic of self-controlling circuits and so on in advance. so i am a completely fresh noob, and i think with this i represent most of the users that are running distributed computing projects.

i wanted to post few of my first impressions i got, and i think most of the users that try to run the client will think the same.

1. How i found the project:

www.rechenkraft.net <-- a german page with a huge list of distributed computing projects and screens, descriptions and so on...
ive tried to find a project that will help research to develop future hard/software. as concequence out of that projects like chessbrain where not in my list.
in former times i let climateprediction work on my pc, but that took to much ressources form my machine (especially ram), so i seared for another project.
Finnaly my decision was to try DHE



2. first problems:

ok, i browsed the project page, and first searched for screens of the client but found none :-/
the download page itself was a bit frustrating to me because i couldn really figure out which version would be the right for my pc (does the gui steal gui performance...? and so on)
ok, finally i choosed the non-gui version, installed it, everything worked fine, until i started the client the first time and nothing happend. no notification tray icon, no splash screen, no CPU usage...
i then decided to install the gui vesion, to get at least a look at the error message the client should give out.
the installation of the gui version worked fine, but was a bit complicated.
ive started the gui version via batch file and get the error that the server would be down. after trying to connect for 10 hours i checked the forum and the FAQ.
arrived at this point i SURELY would have cancelled the efforts to get the client run, if i would not have been interested in the topic...

one day later (today) the massage arrived that a firewall blocked the server and now everything works fine


3. client issues:

sorry, but IMO there are many problems that are not solved good in the GUI
- no try icon (i dont want to have alway 2 windows on top of my desktop (command line, gui)
- unnecessary informations (which noobs which only want to support the project needs this information)???:

<g>TvVuvg~[_F03Q8G007s0FHr5hpFg168p7W0W0249303g0]6W0000W2_GX820208OU3_VvTntvvu4_FvjKQg0000X2Gr0Xgs34WiQSZ3g5pdBO0vTntvru4cv01INXc002S48I0W0vkY[KY[LTlvvuHH200Vvvp38LnLVvv[A2DLLvp501lLvvvZ6GlTlvvuH`IFvsg~cMW1vvkMI2IClLNvvuW030Fvv[C000gvvuGg0LnNvvp32k00vvv[A05TLvvuH0j7vsXXMY5LlvvuHGn303tvjvW100FnvVpvW03vvuCO0TFrvFvv^tLvi6E100g3vvp6W0g0Fvv[Q0F8YvVuvfstCJP1S00g0vVtvg0303tvnvW1vviCFXqFg0gvVsvg0C03vv603vvAHH100TLNvvp2~LnVvuOiQJ_00vfsvvuVnVv8 kh430vfsvnvVvs^[k^5gC0FnvFs00Z0vVsvnvQB3tvjvvo
- this graphic, it is not obviously for me htf they should represent...



4. Suggestions:

- Better installation program (choose wether gui, non gui)
- account creation (every user can create a unique account with a nick, with his islands combined under his nick)
- tray icon (absolut necessary to hide the status windows, with the ability to start the gui at each time)
- new modern multilangual website, with better structured information (maybe i can care for that)
- ability to switch all visual options and informations on/off
- tooltip description for the fileds in the gui




ok, that are many hard words from a damn noob , but as i said thats the way i think many other users will think too. if this points are improved, i think the project could gain many new users.

PS: pls tell me if you would be interested in a new homepage. maybe i could code one, but i would need the webspace with php/mysql support, and ppl who translate the page in different languages (i could do german)

PPS: sry for my bad english

greez PlanetScorp