Re: Thoughts on Nautilus

[Andrew Post <apost cbmi upmc edu>]

Matthias Warkus wrote:
> 1. Don't make this a clone of Windows 98's IE-"enhanced" Explorer. It
>    looks like it's going that way.
> 
> 2. Don't make it a clone of Konqueror, either. 8)

I completely agree. I was disturbed to see a screenshot that looked
identical to the IE-"enhanced" Windows Explorer. I have yet to meet
anyone who truly thought that this feature increased their productivity.
Rather, it slows Windows down tremendously and is a colossal waste of
screen real estate. I mean, why should a folder with 5 files in it take
up a quarter of my screen at 1024x768 resolution?

Why are the UI people settling only for being as good as Windows? No one
would deny that the Windows GUI leaves a lot of room for improvement. If
any GUI is worth cloning, Windows certainly isn't it. If you're just
going to clone someone else's work, why don't you look at OS/2's WPS?

Finally, it is far more important to have an interface that's powerful
and easy to use than it is to have an interface that's simply familiar.
If the GUI is of high quality, it won't matter that it's unfamiliar,
because people will be able to quickly figure it out.

Andrew