Re: SV: [Nautilus-list] Desktop folder

[Tuomas Kuosmanen <tigert ximian com>]

On Wed, 2002-03-20 at 22:30, Joe Shaw wrote:

    My personal feeling is that my desktop is for launchers, links, etc.,
    and my home directory is my "dumping ground" for a bunch of stuff.  I

Yea, that is why I agree for the configurability. We probably have two
kinds of users (beware, these are rather narrow stereotypes)

        * comes-from-windows -people. Stores stuff in D:\stuff\files\
          and uses the windows explorer like a browser to get there.
        * comes-from-mac -people. Is used to having folders on the
          desktop and the files there. Would perhaps be using "open each
          folder in its own window" if nautilus 1.4 wasnt so frigging
          slow :-)

Even though "lets make it configurable" is generally a signal that the
coder cannot decide between two bad ideas, I very much think we want
give a choice here since people have very different expectations on how
the thing should work. So whatever people want to use, they can
configure it for their needs.

But I think it *might* be easier for new-to-computers people to
understand the "I see my files and folders on the screen". Of course if
you have been using Windows for years you very likely want to use it
differently. But the interesting thing is that most of the people who
mentioned that they tried it seem to be liking it and kept the setting.

    Consider the first-time user, starting up GNOME: If they've been using
    KDE, or whatever, and the first time they log in they have icons -all
    over- their desktop, which is supposed to be simple and basic, they'll
    have a terrible first impression of GNOME.  If they don't spend the time

Actually having something like Doorman for first-time-login for setting
things like this, preferably with some explanations on the settings
might be good?
    
    I'm all for making it a configurable option, but I don't think it's a
    big problem as long as we clearly distinguish the difference between
    one's home directory and one's desktop.  Windows seems to do this just
    fine, so I don't think it's a big usability problem.  (Although it can
    be difficult figuring out where exactly your home is on the file
    system)  I also think that icons which take you to your home directory
    or the desktop, like in the Ximian file selector, also go a long way.

Yea. The buttons solve it a bit. But I still wonder *why* the
distinction of desktop and the homedir is a good idea in general. It
clearly is *if* you just want a clean desktop for launchers and nothing
more.

It is a question of how you see the role of the desktop. Most
applications default loading and saving operations to your $HOME. I tend
to do a lot of file loading and saving from the Gimp for example. And
one of the nicest things in my setup is the following.. 

Let's say you mail me asking for a quick mockup of some Red Carpet UI
colors thing. Your mail has an attached screenshot of the current
version so I know what kind of thing it is.

        * I save the attachment pic (evo defaults saving to my $HOME) 
        * I click "reply" on evolution, and leave the composer there,
          going to the virtual desktop where my Gimp is.
        * Meanwhile, Nautilus has thumbnailed the file on the desktop
          ($HOME, where I saved it) and I just drag it into Gimp.
        * I edit the file in Gimp and make my modifications to it. As
          this is just a quick thing I wont be saving it on the "work"
          folder.
        * Once I am done, I just save over the old name, updating the
          file on the desktop. Again I see from the thumbnail that it is
          updated
        * I go back to the composer, and write a reply to you, and drag
          the image to the composer, which makes it into an attachment
        * I click "Send" and then drag the image from the desktop to the
          trash. Or to "work" folder if I wanted to save it for later
          use.

Now, if I had ~/desktop (*) directory, I would need to browse there with
the evolution and gimp file selectors.

This is clearly a different way of using the desktop for sure, but it
makes a lot of sense to me atleast.

Tuomas

(* the ~/.gnome-desktop is just as bad, we need to replace that since it
is even hidden on the default gtk file selector.)

-- 
:: :: Tuomas Kuosmanen  :: Art Director, Ximian :: ::
:: :: tigert ximian com :: www.ximian.com       :: ::