Re: Gnome menu management
Hi,
Scott James Remnant <scott@netsplit.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-05-17 at 14:19 +0300, Žygimantas Augilius wrote:
> > Maybe debian-desktop or debian-gtk-gnome could decide, which
> > applications should be included in Gnome menu?
> >
> Speaking from the peanut gallery; I only want to see GNOME applications
> in the GNOME menu. The correct solution for non-tech people is to
> ensure there's a GNOME app/shell that does the job of the one they're
> lookingfor.
Which application is a GNOME application and who decides this ? If some
software uses some gnome libraries (for example GTK+) can someone call this
a GNOME application? On the other hand - why users should find easily not
user-friendly application, based on GTK+, but hardly to find user-friendly
application, based on other libraries, like SDL or xlibs ?
For example now in Gnome menu at Application->Graphics category there is
TuxPaint (funny painting program, using SDL), Sodipodi, Inkscape (vector
drawing programs, using GTK+), Eog image viewer, gThumb image viewer and
The Gimp (all based on GTK+), but lots of other useful and user-friendly
programs, like gliv (image viewer, based on GTK+, that uses gdk-pixbuf to
load images, and OpenGL to render them) aren't in GNOME menu.
Who decided, that TuxPaint, Sodipodi or gThumb is GNOME program, but
gliv isn't ? Same with Internet and other categories, for example in
Internet there are lots of browsers, like Mozilla, Galeon, Epiphany,
Firefox, Encompass, but there are no Dillo browser (which is based on
GTK+ like others). Another example is TVtime television viewer - it has no
GNOME libraries (uses xlib directly), but is included in main Gnome (and
KDE) menu at Multimedia category and lots of users like this, because it
is the best (and very user-friendly) TV Viewer.
It seems that the current situation is just accidental - if upstream
authors include .desktop file, then in most cases maintainer of debian
package will not remove this file, so this software will be visible in main
Gnome menu (or other environment, which supports freedesktop.org standard,
like KDE); if upstream doesn't provide .desktop file but debian maintainer
or someone else makes this file (and maintainer does include this file in
deb package), then software is visible in Gnome or KDE again; but if debian
package maintainer don't want to include .desktop file - software isn't
visible in Gnome or KDE.
So, why package maintainer (which in lots of cases doesn't use Gnome or
KDE) has the right to decide to include some software in main Gnome (or KDE,
etc.) menu or leave this software visible only in Debian submenu ? One man
decides for thousands users!!!
I think this situation is bad, because users or developers, who really
use this environment and some applications can't decide where these
applications in menu of environment are located. I think namely these
users or developers should decide to make applications easily accesible
in some environment or not. For example most of gnome desktop users and
developers agree, that very kde-specific applications (like
KDE-Control-Center) shouldn't be in main GNOME menu, because only few
people will start KDE-Control-Center from Gnome :) But in other cases,
when application (or game) aren't specific to any desktop environment
some group should decide to include this application in main Gnome menu
or to leave in Debian submenu.
I know, that some people don't wanna see lots of programs directly in
Gnome menu, because some programs they use very rarely. So, if they don't
use these programs, why they keep these programs installed on their system ?
Also I know, that most of users wanna find easily the sofware, which they
have just installed, but in current situation it's very hard to find
recently installed programs for non-tech people, because they don't know
in which menu and in which category to look for (for example Xine movie
player is in main GNOME menu at Multimedia category, but in Debian menu
at Apps->Viewers Category). If leater people find out, that they use this
software very rarely - they can manually remove this program from main
Gnome menu or remove this software from their system until next time they
need it.
Finally, my suggestion is simple - we should make like most of users want :)
--
Good luck,
Mantas Kriaučiūnas <mantas@akl.lt> Jabber ID: mantas@akl.lt
Public organization "Open Source for Lithuania" - www.akl.lt
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