Re: SV: [Nautilus-list] Desktop folder

[Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>]

On Wed, 2002-03-20 at 19:52, Ettore Perazzoli wrote:

    > I just tried desktop == $HOME. And I do now ask myself why I did not
    > have it like this from start. The only problem with that solution are
    > applications that can not be configured to create their working dirs in
    > $HOME which I consider to be a bug. I would even like to move as many 
    > ${HOME}/.files as possible to ${HOME}/etc/ (and there without dot) 
    > which makes much more sense since ${HOME} is like / for the hard disk.
    
    You can't change all the apps in the world.

That is exactly what this is about: most apps *already* work on your
homedir just fine. There are really not that many programs that create a
non-hidden dir; most unix/linux software uses a .dotfile  or -directory.
It's an issue with just a few programs like netscape mail and evolution.
(mozilla uses .mozilla/ for everything AFAIK)  Pine and Mutt can be
configured to use ~/.mail for example. Openoffice/Staroffice can be
installed to a hidden dir too, it just suggests ~/OfficeSomething, just
add a dot in the beginning of the directory name and it works fine. So
one could well argue that the file storage for unix is $HOME (naturally)
and apps generally do not create visible files there. 

Whether the file storage should be represented on the desktop is the
point here, and I think it is a good idea for clarity's sake. No need
for any separate desktop directory, you save a file and you see where it
is. And just make folders to avoid clutter. That is how I always used
the Mac too, although it *technically* is not the "homedir"; it pretty
well looks like that for the user. Most apps default saving to the
desktop.

Tuomas

-- 
:: :: Tuomas Kuosmanen  :: Art Director, Ximian :: ::
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