Re: Baobab

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Thu, 27 Jul 2006, Callum McKenzie wrote:

> Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:33:30 +1200
> From: Callum McKenzie <callum spooky-possum org>
> To: Davyd Madeley <davyd madeley id au>
> Cc: desktop-devel-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Baobab
>
> On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 10:35 +0800, Davyd Madeley wrote:
> > As Jeff said. This smacks of KDE/GNOME 1.2 feature creep.
> >
> > Please don't get me wrong, it seems like a useful application (little
> > rough around the edges, but that can be fixed), but does it belong in
> > core GNOME?

> Is trying to find where all your disk space has gone a common and useful
> activity?
>
> I say yes[1].

What happens next is where the real potential lies.

A few good bits of integration with other tools could help to answer users
questions and enable them to solve the underlying disk usage problems.

Do I have some very large files taking up space?
Do I have many small files taking up space?
Do I have some programs I can uninstall to save space?
Do I need to empty the trash or clear out other transient files?
(The second and fourth items tend to overlap.)

("My mailbox spam folder is how big?  Gigabytes you say, oh dear.")

These are not just administrators tasks because any user is forced to do a
certain level of maintaince to keep things running smoothly.

It may also be possible to adjust Baobab to educate users and give them a
better understanding of what is actually happening and how their
file system but that would just be a bonus.

-- 
Alan H.