Re: [Usability] "Finish" vs. "Close" in gnome-control-center dialogs

[Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com>]

On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 22:55 +0100, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> --- Rodney Dawes <dobey novell com> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 16:45 +0100, Joachim Noreiko
> > wrote:
> >
> http://developer.gnome.org/documents/style-guide/gnome-glossary-desktop.html
> > 
> > These are guidelines, and it uses appropriate
> > terminology where
> > appropriate. The guidelines are ignorant of the
> > separation of image and
> > color for the desktop background. These two items
> > are not mutually
> > inclusive into a single object and term.
> > 
> > Also: http://makeashorterlink.com/?A21F13DDC
> > 
> > Practically every movie site, and theme site, calls
> > desktop backgrounds,
> > "wallpaper". 
> 
> Just because Microsoft chose to use that term, and
> everybody is following, doesn't mean we should.
> OS X doesn't even use a term in the preferences,
> except in the desktop context menu, where is says
> 'desktop background'.

Point-in-case. Microsoft doesn't use the term Wallpaper in their config
dialog either. The tab in the Display Properties is titled "Desktop",
and the label for the list is titled "Background:". So, no, it isn't
just following Microsoft. It's following the terminology used where
people actually go to get these things. And I think a search result of
17.x million vs. 2.x million is a sufficiently large difference to
justify the use of the term. Surely 15 million people can't be wrong.
But, just as I think blindly following Microsoft is a bad idea, so is
blindly following what Apple does with Mac OS. We need to innovate on
our own, and do better than both of them.

-- dobey