Re: SV: [Nautilus-list] Desktop folder

[Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>]

On Wed, 2002-03-20 at 05:17, David Bordoley wrote:
    Can I just go on the record saying i categorically hate the idea of
    making the home directory the desktop directory default. Especially for
    multi-user environments where the home directory is the only directory
    users have access to save to, this would be extremely annoying. I like

mkdir stuff

Put the things there. I really do not save everything to my home *dir*
but in folders there.

This is really nothing different from what you see from the shell, but
on the shell you just dont look at the mess all the time. You make
folders and organize your files there. I dont see any problem with this
really. Mozilla happily remembers the last saved location, so it works
really well.

I have been using $HOME as my desktop for about a year now with no real
problems. It *works well* and solves the "the file is on the desktop but
I cannot find it on the file selector!" -problem.

I also use the desktop for temporary saving, an example:

        1. take a screenshot, which gets saved to the desktop
        2. compose a mail with evolution
        3. drag the screenshot to the composer to attach the file

I am not forcing anything to anyones throat, but I just say it *does*
work for me. And I use it daily.

    having a clean desktop with minimal icons. However when i'm surfing the
    web and download something, it's nice to be able to save to the desktop
    so i can keep track of it and then move or whatever the file/program i 
    downloaded.

Yes, that is why I *do* like to have desktop == $HOME.
    
    keeping the desktop directory hidden is a problem. Yes savvy users will
    know that in that in gtk fileselector you can show hidden files by
    typing . but hopefully gnome will be used by non-savvy, computer
    illiterate users who just want an easy to used desktop. If these users
    are ex-windows users( aka me 7 months ago) in particular, they are going
    to want to be able to easily save to the desktop.

So what is the problem with my setup then? Everything defaults to $HOME.
So everything ends up in the desktop by default. And it is very easy to
move the file to some other folder just by dragging it.

A lot of people used to have a "NOOO!!" first reaction, but many people
who tried setting their $HOME as their desktop and kept it that way for
a week (and cleaned up their homedir :-) never went back. It is not that
bad. I mean, uh, it works fine. Of course everyone is free to disagree
:-)

Tuomas
    
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