Menu Policy - please read if you maintain a package with a .desktop file in it!

Nils Philippsen nphilipp at redhat.com
Fri May 14 16:59:03 UTC 2004


On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 16:09, Colin Walters wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-05-14 at 09:21, seth vidal wrote:
> > > And you expect users to sit down when they first log in and evaluate all
> > > the various options for software, pick one for each task?  Nobody wants
> > > to do that.  They want one application that just works.
> > > 
> > 
> > As opposed to what other option? Hunt around to edit their menus up?
> 
> I wouldn't expect most users to edit the menu at all.  They'll just use
> the default.

This is only true for "mere users" in the sense as the car drivers who
wouldn't change their tires by themselves. You are ignoring all those
who use e.g. enlightenment because it's so 733T, something else only
because it's different... By your reasoning nobody on Windows would use
anything besides IE which is just plain wrong (thankfully).

> > If they don't know what's on the machine, then how are they supposed to
> > determine which application is best for them?
> 
> Again, I don't think most users are going to want to spend time
> evaluating various applications.

Again, you are looking at a very limited set of users.

> > Moreover, what if they already have a preferred application? But it's
> > not the 'preferred one' by your standards. How are they supposed to find
> > it?
> 
> If they have a preferred application, they're more of a power user. 
> Probably something like the MacOS "Applications" folder would be a good
> solution here, as Rex suggested.

ACK.

Nils
-- 
     Nils Philippsen    /    Red Hat    /    nphilipp at redhat.com
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 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."     -- B. Franklin, 1759
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