Re: Menubar (and Empty Default Desktop) Proposals for GNOME 2.10

[Nigel Tao <nigel tao myrealbox com>]

> Desktop being prefilled with useful stuff is most important when
> starting, when you don't have any apps to obscure it yet, and even more
> so when you don't have your environment customised yet, which is by
> definition novice user's situation. 

Hmm... what I read into that is, by your argument, the current default
desktop is insufficient for novices.  What you start with is:
Computer
Home
Trash

The first is unhelpful - you get to see
Filesystem
CD-ROM
Network
and the first one of those leads to newbie-confusion: "bin/ boot/
dev/... what does it all mean!?"

The second is unhelpful - for a new user, Home is an empty folder, and
doesn't help you get started.

The third (an empty Trash) is unhelpful.

(I have a memory that there used to be a Start-Here desktop item, but
that seemed to be a clumsy wrapper around the applications menu,
preferences, and some other stuff.  RIP with good reason, I feel.)

So we agree that the default desktop needs changing.  Now, back to the
merits of an empty desktop...  :-)

Nigel.