Thoughts about the nautilus desktop view

[Emmanuel Pacaud <emmanuel pacaud univ-poitiers fr>]

Hi,

The location of the desktop files has already been discused before, but
there never been an agreement about this topic. Three possibility were
discussed:

  * hidden directory (~/.gnome-desktop) -> this location is difficult to
reach from other application than nautilus.
  * non hidden directory in ~/ (for example: ~/Desktop) -> some find
that clutters the ~ directory when you use the command line.
  * ~/ -> some applications create folders in it that can't be removed
and will be allways visible in the desktop view.


What if the desktop view represents the merged content of two
directories ?

  * One containing only the .desktop files, for example in
~/.gnome-desktop. This location doesn't have to be easily accessible
from applications. 

  * One containing regular files and folders, and located in a place
defined by the user (by default ~/Desktop or may be another localised
name).

 That way, the important things of the desktop (*.desktop) would be in a
safe (hidden) place, but the desktop would still be easely reachable
from other apps (for example, put files downloaded from galeon on the
desktop).

Best regards,

  Emmanuel.