Better name for computer:// place?



Hi!

I reported some time ago bug 406661 [1] about changing the name of the
computer:// place to something more suited to what it really is.

IMHO naming it "Computer" is merely a legacy from Windows were this name
is not really good either. In GNOME doesn't fit this place since we only
show there the root filesystem, additional disk volumes, removable
drives and network servers/shares. This is well expressed by the tooltip
used by both nautilus and the panel (from nautilus-computer.desktop):
"Comment=Browse all local and remote disks and folders accessible from
this computer"

I can see that using this name is useful to Windows users (and old GNOME
users) that are used to seeing their volumes there. But in GNOME we
don't have the Configuration Panel and Printing options that Windows
shows. Thus, calling it "Computer" can be misleading ("where can I find
the config panel?").

But as a general rule, calling any item "Computer" on a computer desktop
is something silly: you'll never have access to eveyrthing on your
computer from a dialog. Else it would be a "Start" menu. I propose GNOME
removes this bad idea by using a term that really corresponds to what
the user will find in this place. The old user will understand why this
is justified; new GNOME users will understand that Linux is not Windows
and that, well, in GNOME, things are more logical and intelligently
designed. The "System" menu is our way to configure the "Computer", the
"Places" menu the way to browse the "Computer": how simple!

Therefore, I can propose a few ideas, but I hope you'll find more and
better ones: "Volumes", "Disks", "Drives", or "Disks and Folders" (as
the tooltip says), "Disks and Servers", "Disks and Shares". It may be
difficult to find the right word, but I think we should no longer stick
with the current one (which is the worse we can use) just because we
don't have the perfect term. I guess this is what has occurred until now.


I hope this idea might help making this smarter
Thanks for your work on Nautilus


[1] http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=406661


[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]