Proposing gnome-backgrounds for Inclusion in 2.6

["Eugene O'Connor" <Eugene Oconnor Sun COM>]

Hi all,

I've been following the discussion about the term wallpaper. I think we
should avoid this term for the following reasons:

a. We already have a term for this concept - "desktop background". This
is the term that is used in gnome-backgrounds and in the UI. In the
soon-to-be-released GNOME Documentation Style Guide V1.3 [1], this is
defined as "The image that is applied to the desktop." We need to avoid
use of synonyms for usability and translation reasons.

b. "Wallpaper" is not an accurate real-life metaphor for what is going
on here. As Erick points out, nobody puts wallpaper on their desktop in
real life. This suggests that new users will have difficulty with this
term and Erick's experiences seem to support that.

c. If the term "wallpaper" is used it would probably mean the desktop
background. But presumably the images in gnome-backgrounds can also be
applied to panels, Nautilus windows, Nautilus side panes (and possibly
other parts of the UI). In this case, "wallpaper" would not express the
full usefulness of gnome-backgrounds.

Hope this helps,
Eugene

[1] The GDSG at
http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/gnome-glossary-desktop.html
is actually V1.0. Later versions of the GDSG are in CVS, but the
auto-update is not working. This is the subject of bug 116049.