Re: Menubar (and Empty Default Desktop) Proposals for GNOME 2.10

[Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn charter net>]

On Fri, 2004-11-19 at 12:12 +0100, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:

> Well, the desktop for me is a place to put information that I want to 
> have quick access to. A launcher isn't a form of information, it's 
> something intangible that starts a program when activated. But to 
> activate it on the desktop you have to double click it, whereas on the 
> panel a single click suffices. (Yes, I also think we should switch to 
> single click everything, but that's another discussion.) In short, 
> mingling launchers and documents brings "semantic confusion".
> 
> The Ravasio et al. paper Nigel linked to seems to somewhat support this 
> position, since it says users tend to see the desktop as a temporary 
> storage area for working information.

I agree strongly with this point of view; Especially with the "spatial"
way of thinking, it seems to make much more sense that the desktop be
just another folder. 

New users, at least on windows, seem to fall into the trap of believing
that deleting an app's launcher deletes that application. Having the
launchers as grabbable, manipulable objects on the desktop would
encourage that thought.