Re: RFC: Common desktop-wide paths

[Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>]

On Mon, 2004-10-04 at 00:35 +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote: 
> Agree, Desktop should be the default download directory - files right at
> your fingertips. :-)

Sorry dude, agree on the point, but disagree on the fix.

(1) Files right at your finger tips     - YES
(2) Desktop as the default download dir - NO

Moving the default download directory to the desktop is really a hack to
achieve (1), however there are other ways besides (2) to fix the
problem.  We could have Nautilus use a special view [1] to the Downloads
folder that is more optimized to newly downloaded files and actions to
help people clean/organize those downloads.  I've also always wanted to
toy with the idea of having the Downloads directory be a live object
(like an applet instead of just a folder) on the Desktop.  Where after a
download it would (somehow) display the last downloaded object so you
could see where the file was dropped and 'move/copy/perform actions' on
it without having to open the Downloads directory directly.  Anyway, I
think we can generate lots of ideas about bettering the download file
experience.

My main point is that we don't want to create clutter on peoples
desktops forcing them to keep it tidy.  I'd argue that most people don't
want to clean/organize their Desktop, many might, but on the whole most
people don't.  Often files downloaded are ones that people want to keep
around, but they aren't sure for how long.  A downloads directory allows
us to hide the clutter of keeping files hanging around without having to
decide to delete or organize them in order to maintain sanity on the
Desktop.  That said, a difficult to use Downloads directory/system is
just as bad as cluttering the Desktop.

Cheers,
~ Bryan

[1] Now that there are python-nautilus bindings it would be cool to see
someone play with creating a special view to the downloads directory.