Re: [Usability] nautilus, panel, and metacity not acting as if the desktop was a single entity

[dave <davemsharp gmail com>]

In OSX though, you don't have to install applications. You can just
leave the app folders there to decide. We are talking about gnome
specifically.

On 7/12/05, Matthew Thomas <mpt myrealbox com> wrote:
> Calum Benson wrote:
> >...
> > FWIW, I've always thought that the desktop should really just be one big
> > two-dimensional panel, with as similar capabilities and interactions to
> > the panel as possible. (A direction that we're arguably headed anyway,
> > with the increasing popularity of things like Konfabulator, gdesklets
> > and Apple's Dashboard.)  Having two objects that share many similar
> > behaviours but also have some arbitrarily different ones is a surefire
> > way to screw up a user's conceptual model.
> >...
> 
> That's a bit ironic, since Konfabulator, gdesklets, and the Dashboard
> are petri dishes for the development of objects that share many similar
> behaviors but also some arbitrarily different ones. (Surprise! The
> Dashboard Calculator widget has behavior inconsistent with the
> non-Dashboard Calculator app. Surprise! The Dashboard Dictionary widget
> has behavior inconsistent with the non-Dashboard Dictionary app.
> Surprise! The Konfabulator Clock widget has behavior inconsistent with
> the clocks in Windows and OS X. I'm sure I could say the same about
> gdesklets too, if I could only get them to run for more than 0.5 seconds
> before disappearing...)
> 
> > Having said that, I totally agree that we should strongly discourage
> > applications to install launchers on the desktop... if we could find a
> > way to prevent that whilst still allowing the user to create their own,
> > I'd be entirely in favour.  Just because a feature is open to
> > annoying-but-harmless abuse shouldn't automatically mean we deprive our
> > users of it though, provided they consider the usefulness to outweigh
> > the annoyance.
> >...
> 
> In OS X, I put programs on the Desktop for the same reason I put
> documents on the Desktop; as a temporary measure while I try them out
> and decide whether I want to file them somewhere or throw them out. In
> Gnome that's not an issue, though -- applications either appear in the
> Applications menu, or (if badly packaged) disappear beneath the GUI
> never to be seen again. Either way, I don't need the Desktop for them.
> 
> --
> Matthew Thomas
> http://mpt.net.nz/
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