Re: Should Desktop = Home?

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

I think it should be. The difference is a pedantic one, and I believe
that $HOME == Desktop in Mac OS X also. However, this thread probably
belongs on the usability list (as probably does the desktop-wide path
thread as well).

-- dobey


On Sat, 2004-10-02 at 15:27 -0300, Steven Garrity wrote:
> I snuck this question in the middle of the discussion[1] about default 
> folders (Photos, Music, Documents, etc.), and got one reply arguing 
> against [2] and one arguing for [3], but I thought it deserved a thread 
> of its own.
> 
> Should we merge the Home directory with the Desktop directory?
> 
> There are some obvious arguments that popup in the "no" camp, including 
> keeping your desktop (or your home dir) clutter free. However, people 
> like to keep both as clutter-free as possible.
> 
> When I compare the contents of my current Desktop to my current Home 
> dir, I don't see too much of a semantic difference. Obviously, my Home 
> dir is full of hidden dirs with all of my application settings, but I 
> don't see those in Nautilus anyhow.
> 
> It always did strike me as odd that from my Desktop, I have a link to my 
> Home dir, which contains my Desktop - don't seem very "spacial" to me 
> ;-)   (kind of Escher, actually)
> 
> I see this as an opportunity to take two similar but slightly different 
> metaphors (the Desktop and Home dirs) and merge them into one - making 
> for one less concept the we have to grasp when we deal with our files.
> 
> Thoughts? Thanks,
> Steven Garrity
> 
> [1] 
> http://lists.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-October/msg00018.html
> [2] 
> http://lists.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-October/msg00026.html
> [3] 
> http://lists.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2004-October/msg00026.html