Re: Major change in desktop handling

[Daniel Borgmann <spark-mailinglists web de>]

On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 23:16, George Farris wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 14:00, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> > On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 16:48, MArk Finlay wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2003-05-15 at 21:31, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > So Alex - yesterday you complain about list traffic, today you
> > > > triple-crosspost a thread about ~/Desktop vs. ~/.gnome-desktop
> > > > vs. "desktop is your homedir" ;-)
> > > > 
> > > > <aol/> vote for ~/Desktop !
> > > 
> > > Co[$HOME as desktop]ugh
> > 
> > Actually, as a until-very-recently proponent of $HOME as desktop, I
> > think ~/Desktop is probably better; the reasoning being so many stupid
> > _argh!_ programs make folders in $HOME
> > 
> 
> Right, there are many of us that have moved to ~/.etc/<app> for config
> files.  It makes a lot of sense.  All applications developers please
> consider this.

It's not just config files though. Not everything applications generate
should be inaccessible by the user.
I'm currently using $HOME as desktop because people argued that I would
have to do that (again) for a while to form an opinion. ;) And yes, it's
more convenient right now than using .gnome-desktop. BUT, that's mostly
because .gnome-desktop is almost inaccessible from our file selector.
Once we get a new one which defaults to ~/Desktop, this problem would be
solved and having this as a human readable directory should also work
reasonably well for "legacy file selectors". 

I still think that ~/Desktop is the way to go for very simple reasons:
* You can get exactly the same result as "$HOME as desktop" by simply
defaulting Nautilus and the file selector to ~/Desktop (if you want
that). There is nothing stopping users to place their entire 50 GB audio
collection on their desktop instead of their $HOME.
* Most people aren't used to be restricted to their desktop as
"everything they have". They use the desktop as a workspace which is
often as chaotic as their "real" desktop. :) By making this impossible,
you just remove a feature for no particular reason other than "people
don't need to learn that they can use more than their desktop".
* Considering that this isn't providing any new functionality and only a
very questionable simplification, I just can't see why this is worth
fighting for with all opponents (those who want a "clean" desktop, those
who don't like having their secret loveletters in a folder on their
desktop, those who want their desktop free for temporary work, etc) and
"the other large desktop environment" instead of just going on for the
sake of progress.

Ok there is another good reason for $HOME as desktop: The "Home" icon on
the desktop is illogical and providing an endless loop
(~/Desktop/Home/Desktop/Home/...), also making it difficult for users to
understand the real connection between their $HOME and their desktop
(desktop lives in their $HOME, not the other way around). Something
should be done about this IMHO (like removing this icon or at least
making it appear less like a folder).

My sincere apologizes for increasing the traffic. :)

Daniel