Re: Win95 users vs. Gnome users - a rant (was Re: Possible gmc bug?)

[bob kehs ksd org]

any of you guys check out gmc? it does exactly this. it places desktop
links to devices and allows you to mount/unmount them

On Sun, 18 Apr 1999, Michael Rogers wrote:

> >> >When I first showed gnome to someone used to another operating 
> >> >system (this was back at the 0.30 stage) one of the first things 
> >> >they said was where is my C: drive and my A: drive. (OK so this is 
> >> >a vulgar DOSism but its so embedded into the average users psyche 
> >> >you have to account for it)
> >> 
> >>  I don't think Gnome should pander to Win95 users by making the 
> >> interface "easy to learn for the average newbie coming from Win95". 
> >> "Easy to learn" is enough. Hopefully in the near future some users 
> >> will come to Gnome as their first experience of computers. It would 
> >> be a shame if they found it imitating Windows.
> >> 
> >>  There are good points about the Win95 interface, but some of them 
> >> (like the C: drive existing within "My Computer", which exists 
> >> within "Desktop", which exists within "C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP", which 
> >> exists within the C: drive...) are confusing and stupid. Personally 
> >> I prefer the Unix method of having a unified filesystem which 
> >> starts at /. This may also be a lie for the sake of convenience, 
> >> but at least it's a consistent one.
> >
> >That's not what I said and not where my gnome inductee was coming 
> >from either - they used DOS/win3.11, thats where the C: drive, A: 
> >drive instinct comes from.
> 
> Sorry, I didn't mean to jump down your throat just because you 
> mentioned Windows!
> 
> > The win95 loop you described confuses 3.11 users at first. What I 
> >was trying to point out (badly perhaps) is look how far gnome has 
> >come - when I show the latest gnome to people the floppy. cdrom, etc 
> >are right there and easy to use. But....
> 
> You're right, you did mention that this was Gnome 0.3 you were talking 
> about.
> 
> >> >So my idea is this; would it be possible to put a <Desktop> entry 
> >> >in the drop down path menu of the open/save dialog then it would 
> >> >be easy to find the floppy, zip, etc (this isn't original I just 
> >> >copied this from the mac - anyone who didn't know that go to the 
> >> >back of the class). 
> >> 
> >> (Oops - going to the back of the class.)
> >> 
> >> This is a trivial problem. On my system it's easy to find the 
> >> floppy because it's mounted at /floppy. The cdrom is mounted at 
> >> /cdrom. You don't need to change the file dialog, just mount your 
> >> devices in an intuitive place.
> >
> >Yes, on YOUR system (and on mine too) but stock RH behaviour puts it 
> >in /mnt/floppy and who know knows where other (possibly shared) 
> >devices on other systems like solaris, etc, might be put.
> 
> Perhaps Gnome/GMC could set up symlinks from <desktop_dir>/floppy to 
> the floppy drive's mount point, ditto <desktop_dir>/zip and whatever 
> other devices it finds. That way the links would be accessible from 
> outside of the Gnome desktop.
> 
> >> >A variation on this would be to have the desktop, floppy, cdrom, 
> >> >zip, etc appear in the drop down path menu - this is win95ish I 
> >> >guess so I have my flamesuit ready.
> >> 
> >>  I don't care if it's Win95ish if it works! However, I don't think 
> >> this feature would be a good idea. It imitates one of the worst 
> >> features of Windows - giving the user the impression that the root 
> >> of the filesystem is the desktop, and that their filesystem exists 
> >> within the desktop rather than the other way around. They should 
> >> realise that the icons on their desktop are only links to files or
> >> devices which exist elsewhere.
> >
> >I don't know I could be wrong but I get the impression the the sysops 
> >here would rather we thought the desktop (well our home directory at 
> >least) is the root of the filesystem and that we don't go messing 
> >around any lower than that, but then we might have the BOFH ;-)
> 
> I suppose I was looking at things from the point of view of a home 
> user. I know some sysops still think it's a security risk letting 
> users mount floppies!
> 
> >>  Another problem is that files in the desktop directory would have 
> >> to be automatically "dereferenced" by the file selector widget (so 
> >> that the floppy drive and not the link to the floppy drive would 
> >> appear in the file list). What happens when you want to do 
> >> something to the link instead of to the floppy? You can't find it 
> >> in your file selector.
> >
> >Huh? All I want is an entry in the drop down menu that slaps me in 
> >the .gnome-desktop directory and lets me follow the 
> >fd0/cdrom/My_Latest_project/etc links wherever they may go - like 
> >like if I did 
> > 
> >cd .gnome-desktop/fd0
> >
> >on the command line. I should get round to learning C so I can code 
> >it in myself ;-/
> 
> I think you could set this up with a couple of symbolic links... but 
> mounting the disks would still require the user to know the real mount 
> points. A couple of aliases called mount_floppy and unmount_floppy? 
> I'm sure there's a better way of doing this but I don't know enough 
> about Unix to guess what it is.
> 
> 
>  - Michael Rogers
> 
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