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[Tom Vogt <tom lemuria org>]

 Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
 > Users will keep whatever they're given.  For crying out loud, it's just
 > highlight-and-delete to remove something from the Windows Desktop, and you'd
 > be surprised how much stuff will linger on many people's desktops!

 I don't know what kind of users you know, but there is a bunch of them out
 there that DOES want to configure their interface. your bet why windoze
 "themes" are so popular. because they're an EASY way to make your desktop
 more the way you want it.

 it's gotta be easy. but if it's there, makes sense and helps, it will be
 used. what I think why it's not being done on windoze is because you simply
 get tired of moving the crap around by hand. that's why I say it's gotta
 happen automatically.


 > I am definitely not seeing your point here.  From where I'm coming from,
 > either an app default installs into a detailed heirarchy, with runbox
 > access(still working on this specification), or it installs into some kind
 > of non-detailed heirarchy with an option to place it somewhere better(the
 > Windows way).

 now imagine that the detailed heirarchy you are speaking about can be
 configured by the user - easily. so easy that even your girlfriend, mom and
 grandmother will get it done.



 > >correct. it's 2 clicks away to delete that folder. or you can leave it just
 > >in case you want to install samegnome one day.
 >
 > Wasteful.  "Oh, yeah, I have no games.  Oh, yeah, I have no ping tool."
 > Empty menus are usually bad ideas.

 re-read. sure it's not the best way, but if the user wants to keep an empty
 menu, he damn well should be able to.


 > OK, I like what you're talking about--some kind of system that lets the user
 > change the way the system automatically places things in heirarchies.

 correct.


 > Only problem is--I can't think of how the heck this would work.  I really
 > can't.

 I guess you know the linux software map - sunsite.unc.edu and all, where
 there are these *.lsm files for everything. one entry there is "keywords".
 why not use it? give the user a simple pull-down menu where he can say
 "anything with the keyword 'game' in it will go to the 'games' folder" with
 one mouseclick. the whole point of this is that he'll have to do this ONCE
 and he'll be set for life with a well-structured menu hierarchy.



 > Consider a new operating system being designed to fit with GNOME.  Consider
 > a GNOME patch for Windows(it could happen; litestep exists and works great).
 > One could say that multitasking is a system issue, and not a user issue, but
 > from my perspective the ability to run two apps at once is what makes
 > Windows 3.1 far more useful than DOS, and Windows 95 far more useful than
 > Windows 3.1, and Windows NT far more useful than Windows 95, and Linux far
 > more useful than anything of Microsoft's.  Yes, multitasking is a
 > system-level thing, but it's also very user-level too.

 with that logic you can put  ANYTHING under "user interface". you might be
 right from an argumentative pov, but all this is simply outside of gnome's
 scope.



--
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
		-- Henry Spencer