Re: new file open dialog

[peloy@chapus.net (Eloy A. Paris)]

Miles Bader <miles@lsi.nec.co.jp> writes:

> peloy@chapus.net (Eloy A. Paris) writes:
>> Ahhh, the pleasure of having useful buttons in the file selector
>> dialog... home, desktop, documents. What else one can ask for? :)
>
> Actually those giant buttons seem like a waste of space -- home is
> arguably useful, but `desktop' and `documents'?  Who on earth puts
> anything there (I don't even _have_ a `documents' directory)?!?

I on Earth put stuff in 'desktop' and 'documents'. 'documents' should be
pretty obvious, I think: I keep my documents not in my home directory
but in a separate folder. This is where the 'documents' button comes
very handy. About 'desktop', I tend to put temporary stuff I am working
on on the desktop so I can see it at all times. Also random stuff I
download from the Net just to check out and then delete, or stuff I need
to organize I put on the desktop so I remember I need to do something
about it. I don't use my home directory as my desktop, but I still try
to keep it clean and with the number of files and directories down to a
minimum.

But before a flame war starts about this, please understand this is
something people will never agree on. People have different work
methodologies and are used to different ways of accomplishing what they
need to do. This has been discussed ad naseum in different mailing lists
(search the archives of the nautilus mailing lists, for example.)

I personally think these buttons makes Linux a lot easier to use for the
average user, Moms and grandmoms. If Linux is to reach to these users I
think this has to be done. The important thing is that we have options:
if I don't like what I see I can always run another desktop
environmnent, or just don't use one at all :)

> _Far_ more useful would be a pop-down list of the last N directories you
> used in the dialogue.

Yeah, I agree.

Cheers,

Eloy.-