Re: Gnome 2.6: What were you thinking?

[Andy Ross <andy plausible org>]

Raul Acevedo wrote:
> 1.  A lot of people new to it find it annoying, even after using it for
>     a while,

A lot of very vocal "expert" users (good enough to know how to use the
browser, but not l33t enough to find it in the context menu) find it
annoying.

The world is much bigger than that.  A much larger community of silent
users simply cannot user a tree browser productively AT ALL.  See
below, or investigate for yourself.

> 2.  It takes reading through newsgroups and searching through Google to
>     find the magic incantations to use it reasonably well or turn it off,

Why does this myth persist?

Select "Browse" from a context menu.  Or create a launcher that runs
"nautilus --browse".  If you are using FC2, there's one in your
desktop menu already.  If you *really* hate the spacial stuff, then
hide or delete the spatial icons on your desktop and use the launcher
for everything.

Basically, spend 10 minute configuring your desktop before flaming to
the rest of the world about it.

> 3.  It takes more than two sentences to explain why it's "better",
> Then it probably isn't.

Try turning that around: explain to your grandmother why a browser
interface is better, or even what the tree on the left side is
supposed to represent.  I posted this to slashdot yesterday, but
unfortunately too late for it to get any mod points, heh:

Go find some novice, non-technical windows and macintosh (especially
OS 9 and below) users and watch them. Don't "help" them, don't tell
them what to do, and don't mock them. Just watch them.

The mac users tend to have their files arranged nicely into folders on
their desktops, and can tell you where things are and why they are
there. If they need to move something or make a copy, they typically
aren't afraid to do it.

The windows users of the same skill level have a heap of crap in the
default (usually application-specific) locations. If they are in a
corporate environment they might have an icon on their desktop (that
some IT kid put there) onto which they drag important things. Or else
they memorize a path to type into the "save as..." dialog. They
typically have no ability to sort their documents or move them beyond
the recipes they have been taught.

Really, try this. It's enlightening. If you don't like the spatial
mode, then turn it off. But don't be blind to the needs of the rest of
the world.

Andy