icons on desktop with xfce

[purslow at sympatico.ca]

040501 Wolf Lichtenberger wrote:
> Miro Hodak wrote:
>> On Fri, 30 Apr 2004, Joanna Bialek wrote:
>>> Icons in XFCE??
>>> What for????????????????
>> I am also surprised by this.
>> I thought that the lack of icons was intentional (which I liked),
>> not just a missing feature.
>> At least I hope, it will be implemented in modular fashion.

up on Olympus, OF has been remaining silent, perhaps acquiescing,
but desktop icons do seem contrary to his original conception of XFCE.
would he be willing to tell us his present thoughts re the subject ?

> I found quite some use for the Mac way of document launcher icons.
> You grouped them thematically or any way you liked.

that's what M$ users seem to do, but it's not the UNIX way:
UNIX is built around tools -- programs -- which are applied to documents,
whereas M$ & Mac try to dumb down the user's interface
& choose which app to use to open his/her doc for him/her.
XFCE is designed to be lightweight in using computer resources
& elegant & easy to configure, but not to cater for nitwits.

> But this IMHO doesn't have to be *on* the desktop:
> I'd be quite happy with xffm windows,
> if they would show just the icons in a freely arrangeable fashion.

novices who ask "Where are my desktop icons?" sb educated re XFCE
& how to get what they want using XFCE's existing methods & tools.
perhaps we need a doc 'XFCE for New Users':
ok, mb i should write one, like my 'Lynx Help for Beginners'.

> The big disadvantage of desktop icons IMO is their inaccessability
> while a program window occupies most of the desktop -

also, that M$ & other Linux WM's tend to shove ugly icons at the user:
i don't want to spend my day looking at a gingerbread house & a garbage can.

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