Re: [Usability] Nautilus List View as Default

[Karl Lattimer <karl qdh org uk>]

Please read notes at end of email;

On Tue, 2009-10-13 at 10:32 -0430, Dokuro wrote:
> for the way it behaves with the mouse in the selecction of multiple
> files, i will go with the icon or compact view over the list since the
> information that it shoes is looked over by most people, and it does
> not leave any open space to click and drag a selection square making
> you rely on the shift and control keys.
> 
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 8:50 AM, Allan Caeg <allancaeg gmail com> wrote:
> > Nautilus has three views: Icon View, List View, and Compact View. GNOME's
> > default (correct me if I'm wrong) and other distros is the Icon View.
> > Historically, this has been the most conventional view as it is the default
> > for Finder and older versions of Windows Explorer. However, Windows 7 (I
> > just don't know about Vista) has a new default Windows Explorer view. They
> > are using something similar to the List View. I find it more convenient to
> > use that because it shows a lot of information and it makes it easy to sort
> > files and folders because there are columns.
> > What do you think about this? Don't you think that the List view is more
> > usable and deserves to be the default option?

Compact is my preference, however I'd also like to add;

GNOME does not, (at least as far as I'm aware), change defaults in order
to follow microsoft or apple. Changes should be made when there is a
solid reasoning behind them. 

Giving you more detail is the antithesis of a reason for making a change
to something on the grounds of usability. Usability is about making
things easier to use - easier to understand and interact with. The icon
view and the compact view both show enough information regarding files
for them to be used as a default, advantage of the larger icon footprint
being one major reason for retaining either of these as the default.

If you would like to change your default view this can be done in
preferences however forcing this change on the wider GNOME user base may
cause an unwanted backlash.

BR,
 K