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List:       kde-bugs-dist
Subject:    [Bug 8333] setting 'home page' is unintuitive
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () Acm ! Org>
Date:       2006-02-28 21:54:39
Message-ID: 20060228215439.20221.qmail () ktown ! kde ! org
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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8333         




------- Additional Comments From tyrerj acm org  2006-02-28 22:54 -------
> many computer users actually fear using a file browser beyond "my \
> documents" because they think they will break something.

Probably true, and somewhat odd since on a properly installed Linux system, \
they can't break anything outside of their HOME directory.  Actually, the \
one place where they can break something is in their HOME directory (and \
the so-called hidden subdirectories) which is why I suggest that the \
default setup have the local Home point to "~/Files" (which corresponds to \
"My Documents" -- people say it doesn't, but check a Windows installation). \
That is where my Home button points.

I see some issues with what you propose.  From a usability perspective, it \
isn't a good idea to have states because the user might forget which state \
their in (ambiguous states are worse).  Our current setup lets you go to \
the web in the "file manager" and manage files in the "web browser"  This \
is not good and I don't see anyway to change this.  Even if we had profiles \
that would change based on the protocol (HTTP, FTP, FILE, etc.) it would \
still be best to have two HOME buttons (web home and "My Documents"), \
otherwise, you would need to have some way to change the mode of the \
browser in order to go to the HOME that you wanted.

> web-browser mode (http:// or ftp://.  

I don't think so.  Currently we use the file manager (the KFM part) for \
FTP, should we change this?  This is a further confusion for users.

I am also asserting that another source of confusion is that users seem to \
think that web browsing and local browsing are different things.  This \
would be OK as long as it doesn't result in ambiguous states.  My \
suggestion to avoid this issue is to have profiles based on the protocol in \
use.  If this were the case then clicking on one of the two Home buttons \
would also select (indirectly) the profile to be used.

Note that this needs to be setup so that users don't have to use different \
profiles if they don't want to.  I suggest that there be a default \
"Browser" profile which would be used unless one were defined for the \
protocol being used.  If profiles are used in this way, saving URLs would \
need to be a separate function.


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