Re: Proposal: gnome-user-share

[Alan Cox <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk>]

On Iau, 2004-12-02 at 14:45, Federico Mena Quintero wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-12-01 at 15:12 +0000, Alan Cox wrote
> following.  The very first time a user logs in, he's prompted with
> 
> 	Welcome to your new GNOME desktop.  Before you can do
> 	anything, you must configure certain folders.
> 
> 		Desktop folder:   [Desktop______________]
> 		Sharing folder:   [Public_______________]
> 		Autostart folder: [.autostart___________]
> 		...
> 
> 	             [Cancel]  [Go on, let me log in, damnit]

Why. It can start with the defaults. I've not got any autostart material
and I've not got anything shared by default (and a default magic share
directory would be dangerous for existing users who have that dirname
used...)

Desktop is hard, it can be pulled from i18n defaults initially. What
percentage of people running an English (real or american) desktop want
to rename the Desktop folder as a matter of urgency - probably almost
none. The same will be true in other languages. Its having it in the
wrong language that is the problem. 

Sharing and autostart are easy because they are things you turn on.
(Autostart has some other end user issues like 'what do I do if my small
child put xkillsession in my autostart folder).

Clicking on a folder and saying "Share this" is a very natural way of
setting the share path at the point you decide to share stuff. It fixes
all the UI problems I've seen raised and the i18n ones.

Alan