[Thunar-dev] Desktop

[Auke Kok]

Benedikt Meurer wrote:

> Francois and I just shared a few thoughts about how to handle the 
> desktop in #thunar. Here's the important part, so others can join the 
> discussion:
>
> <benny> IMHO, the real problem with Unix file managers is always the 
> desktop... microsoft did a good job making the desktop the toplevel 
> element, and not something below `My files'... but that doesn't work 
> that way in the Unix world, since for a user, everything is below 
> $HOME (except for some temp files and maybe stuff like mails)
> <benny> and if we don't want to confuse many users, we'll need to use 
> ~/Desktop/ as thats what Gnome/KDE uses and thats what nearly all 
> other apps (like Thunderbird, Firefox, all GtkFileChooser-based apps, 
> ...) use
> <Fuzzbox> Too bad. Desktop and HOME are so redundant. I don't 
> understand why they choose to do it this way. It's copied on Windows 
> desktop.
> <Fuzzbox> And I don't think they made a good job.
> <Fuzzbox> s/they/M$
> ...
> <Fuzzbox> It works indeed in the Windows world but it's confusing on a 
> unix system.
> ...


I can see the problem absolutely here.... And we're not about to change 
it! I think the plurality of use for $HOME makes it's usability as "the 
desktop' impossible without artificial tricks to keep it clean (hidden 
directories anyone? dotfiles?). I don't think that's a good default at all!

> <benny> but whatever the solution may be, it should maintain a minimum 
> degree of compatibility... that is, if I choose to save a file on the 
> Desktop in Firefox, that file should end up being shown on my Xfce desktop


~/Desktop/ can be the default. I would prefer that from a 'minimalist' 
view absolutely above anything else. Perhaps I only want to drop 
launchers in there (symlinks?) or a few temporary documents.

I however DO want to be able to change the location, and not just to 
$HOME... I want to be able (just like Windows allows this) to be able to 
change it to say, /import/network/a/global/Destop/ !

Auke