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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Review of SuSE Linux Professional 9.0 and so also KDE
From:       Tom Chance <lists () tomchance ! org ! uk>
Date:       2004-03-19 15:07:37
Message-ID: 200403191507.37828.lists () tomchance ! org ! uk
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On Friday 19 Mar 2004 14:56, Luciano Montanaro wrote:
> On Friday 19 March 2004 15:19, Andy Goossens wrote:
> > But yet, KDE should try to hide the Linux file system hierarchy somewhat.
> > Why should the user look for a mounted partition, usb device, cd or dvd
> > in /mnt? Or why devices:/ or kdesktop say their "Hard disk (hda1)" is at
> > /mnt/win_c? A generic name like "Windows disk" would be better.
>
> I disagree. This information is needed to make a better use the system.
>
> You need to know where the devices are mounted, if you want to access them
> through the file requester anyway. Where the device is mounted is
> system-specific, (Even distribution-specific) and KDE cannot easily (and
> should not, in my opinion) change this fact.

Agreed. I think KDE already has a fairly decent compromise, which could 
perhaps do with a little refining:

devices:/ (and optionally kdesktop) show a list of devices that should be 
self-explanatory by name. Clicking on a device opens it in konqueror, showing 
the full UNIX path in the location bar.

Some refining:

o The full path (e.g. [/home]) needn't be shown in devices:/ nor on kdesktop, 
and may be confusing

o There are icons for windows, bsd, mac and gnu/linux hard drives about... 
show them for recognised drives in devices:/ and on kdesktop

Any further abstraction from the UNIX filesystem should be done in the LSB or 
maybe freedesktop.org... KDE isn't the place to be breaking or confusing 
standards that all other free software uses.

Regards,
Tom
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