Re: nautilus's browser mode future

[Brad Barnich <bbarnich umich edu>]

Im sorry but I have to faithfully disagree. With most people just now 
feeling comfortable in the web era; How would the general public that we 
are trying to sway to linux react to a toolbar-less file manager. Even 
mac os X has a toolbar still.  Change is good, too much change is 
ultimate disaster.  For power users, spacial is great. If i used fluxbox 
still and needed a file manager, spacial takes it.  Using the keyboard 
is great for minimalist desktops. The general population isn't 
minimalist. The like the arrows on their toolbar. I have been trying to 
switch people from windows to linux for many years, people don't like 
blackbox clones and terminals. They like pretty things that just make 
sense to them, unfortunately spacial navigation doesn't fit this. 
Spacial navigation is just the brain child of a disgruntled power user.  
If gnome chooses to take this route, I'm sorry but I see KDE taking the 
market. I personally hate KDE, but it just makes sense to people, they 
don't have to post to a mailing list to figure out how to navigate their 
hard drive without creating a million windows or clicking "close parent" 
after they open each one.

Take Mac OS X for example, it is different than the Windows/KDE scheme 
with the normal file browsing methods but it it very intuitive. It is 
slightly confusing at first but the average joe can just click around 
and go "Oh!, that makes sense." Nautilus's spacial navigation needs to 
have this intuitiveness as a Major Goal. The day that I can sit a 
typical windows/mac user down on a gnome desktop and have them figure 
things out by just exploring is the day browser mode can be scratched.

Now of course there are other things that could be done, It could be 
made into one interface that is just very customizable. Or add an 
optional toolbar to spacial mode? I don't know but the 2.8 timeframe is 
way to close for this.

how would we try to teach average people to use linux on the desktop 
when they have to regress back to pre-point-and-click.  I don't know 
about your mom, but mine goes clicks the Copy Icon or Edit->Copy but 
never Ctrl+C.

Sorry to jump on you John, I have recently migrated people to gnome 
desktops and their general concensus is Spacial has to go. I don't think 
it has to go, but I do think it needs work.

John McCutchan wrote:

   Hi,

   I know this is going to be controversial, but I think that the browser
   mode of nautilus should be removed completely in the 2.8 cycle. Spatial
   is great and with some extra work it will be perfect.
   John