questions about removable media and desktops

["Matt Brown" <mattbrown autoventshade com>]

One thing that new linux users get stressed out over is
the way that linux handles (or doesn't handle) removable media.
Currently the way that is is handled is distribution specific.
Since this is an important UI issue, I think that removable media
should be addressed by the Gnome Desktop.  That way there is a
consistent way to access removable media that isn't a distribution
specific hack.

Floppy, cdrom, DVD, zip, memory stick... these need to be grouped
together regardless of whether it is an ide,scsi, serial, parallel
or usb device

Question 1: Where should the user go to access removable media.
		wrong answer: "point the file manager to /mnt/floppy, etc")
		
		The user's view of his hardware has a different logical 
		grouping than the machines view of the same hardware,
		and it is the desktop's job to provide this abstraction.

		I personally lean towards the way that Windows XP does
		it with their redesign of "My Computer", although it
		could be a little better still.

Question 2: Is it possible from a technical point of view, to detect
		when removable media is inserted/removed and have a desktop
		icon that appears/dissapears where the icon corresponds to
		the device?  I think Macintosh does this.