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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Abstracting the Linux Desktop from the File-system
From:       Andrew <akar3d () yahoo ! com ! au>
Date:       2002-12-04 4:12:12
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On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 08:26 pm, Julien Olivier wrote:
> > As far as I know, Mail is not hidden so people can find it to make
> > backups. (Or do you thing that home users have automated backup systems?)
>
> Well, that's a bad idea because non-developers don't know that making a
> backup of ~/Mail will backup their emails. An "export emails and config"
> option in kmail would be a MUCH better solution.

Oh! Come on now... Surely even a newbie can infer that a folder called "Mail" 
holds their mail, and that therefore making a copy of "Mail" makes a backup 
copy of their mail.

This topic really is a usability issue and is taking a lot of space on an 
already busy list and probably should be moved to another list, perhaps one 
of the more general ones like kde-linux or kde-cafe as it is certainly not a 
developer issue at this point especially since that apart from the settings 
you can already change in KDE that you can also change your $HOME and $PWD to 
anything you want for linux in general.

Personally I dont see what the fuss is. Leave HOME as it is. Move DOCUMENTS 
onto the desktop if you want and all KDE apps will use it and make a simple 
wrapper script for gnome/other apps so that the document directory is their 
working directory.
This leaves HOME at the default consistent with all other Unices and gives you 
a clean Desktop and a clean hierarchy for data in the DOCUMENTS folder.

Even that is unnecessary though; Between "Recent Documents" and a 
"QuickBrowser" on the menu or kicker it is already simple to access your 
Documents in KDE without opening a window. Despite all the posts I can't see 
one way in which making the Desktop=Home has any sort of advantage. Why not 
set Desktop=Documents? That way you have your kde docs (and others with a 
wrapper) on your desktop but no problem with config and hidden files?

You could go on forever... We have a good set of defaults and anyone can 
change them in numerous ways if they want.  Don't say that Newbies can't; If 
they can't, then that to me is a good argument as to why they SHOULD be using 
a stock-standard default system.


-- 
Regards,
andrew
 
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