[Thunar-dev] Desktop

[Benedikt Meurer]

Auke Kok 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!

Agreed.

> 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/ !

A symlink from ~/Desktop to whatever directory seems to be the solution 
in this situation; this will make sure that all applications still refer 
to the same `Desktop'.

> Auke

Benedikt