Re: [Usability] About Menu Items Proposal

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Thu, 2006-10-12 at 20:18 -0700, Corey Burger wrote:
> On 10/12/06, Steven Garrity <stevelist silverorange com> wrote:
> > As it stands, most Gnome desktops have two About items on the
> > System/Desktop menu. One is About Gnome, the other is About
> > [Distro-name] (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc.).
> >
> > Two menu items for such infrequently accessed, but necessary,
> > information seems unnecessary.
> >
> > I would like to propose these two menu items be merged into one "About
> > this Computer" menu item. Under this item, both the Gnome information
> > *and* the distro-specific information would be shown.
> >
> > I'm not sure how best to show both Gnome and Distro info in one window
> > would be. It could be a split screen, show one by default with a button
> > for the other, or have tabs, like we do for "Written by" and "Translated
> > by" in the Credits box in many apps.
> >
> > Merging these could items together would make a frequently used menu
> > (also contains Shutdown, Logout, Help, etc.) one item smaller, and
> > hence, a little bit easier to use.
> >
> >
> > I have also posted this proposal on the wiki for people to add
> > links/info/comments/issues:
> > http://live.gnome.org/UsabilityTeam/AboutMenuItems
> >
> > So, does it make any sense?
> 
> Yes, this makes a great deal of sense. However, there are two issues
> that I see. The first is, what do distros think abou this?

Well, the OpenSolaris-based distros should be happy enough, as JDS is
already doing this anyway-- we just have an "About Java Desktop System"
menu item now.  That opens a slightly-modified gnome-about dialog that
includes both GNOME and distro-specific credits, licence and version
info, much as Steven is suggesting.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            Java Desktop System Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems