Re: RFC: Common desktop-wide paths

[Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk>]

On Sun, 2004-10-03 at 00:27 +1000, Tristan Buckmaster wrote:
> > having dwelled on the issue that some users dont want their $HOME
> > cluttered I would be inclined to revise the proposal to be
> >
> > ~/Documents/
> > ~/Documents/Pictures
> > ~/Documents/Music
> > ~/Documents/Video
> > ~/Documents/Downloads
> > ~/Documents/Spreadsheets
> > ~/Documents/Diagrams
> > ~/Documents/Drawings
> >
> > I have my doubts that this is the best answer for me personally but I
> > believe that the desktop would quickly get too cluttered if the standard
> > folders were not subdirectories of Documents.
> 
> This maybe a good idea for some people and if they wish they can configure
> it to be this way.  Although the great advantage of putting the directories on
> the desktop, is it is the simplist solution for people new to computing.  A new
> user will see the folders from the first time the boot up their machine and
> think oh goodie here is somewhere I could put all my lovely photos and here
> is a place I can put my music.  If you make the folders in ~/Documents, new
> users would have to navigate around to find that out there are some default
> folders to put photos and music.


Yes thats right but also for another reason - spatial mode implies that
we want to limit hierarchies as much as possible for ordinary users so
by default we should have have four or five of the most commonly used
folders on the desktop rather than being subfolders of Documents

jamie.