icons on desktop with xfce

[Sami Samhuri]

I just wanted to chime in and say I whole heartedly agree with pretty
much everything these 2 gentlemen stated. I used the Desktop toolbar on
WinXP (as well as a couple other custom ones) and really never used the
desktop anyways. I think I would make use of them in XFCE as well. (It
might even tempt me away from Rat Poison, which has been my main window
manager recently, sometimes with an xfce4-panel at the bottom)

(For the record, many Windows users are still chained to the desktop but
MS has even realized it's no good. That's why XP ships with only the
Recycle Bin on the desktop.)

Sam

> It was Sat, May 01, 2004 at 09:41:30PM -0500 when Erick said:
> On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 18:55, Jakob Breivik Grimstveit wrote:
> > On Sat, 2004-05-01 at 21:08, Erick wrote:
> > 
> > > one of the reasons why I use xfce is the lack of icons on the desktop.  
> > 
> > When seldom (being forced by my employer) to use Windows, I configure
> > the task bar to contain a "desktop toolbar" which references to the
> > desktop, and thus popping up all and any icons, documents and shortcuts
> > available there.
> 
> I do the same -- to also include my bookmarks (err "favorites" in IE,
> since my employer does not offer a choice in web browsers), my
> documents, etc.  When set up properly it is not a cumbersome as KDE's
> file browser from the "K" menu.
> 
> > 
> > I have no use for icons on the desktop (as others here have argued, it's
> > a flawed way of thinking, since the icons are more or less always
> > covered by the windows which we are working with), but by using this
> > "desktop toolbar" I always have a common place I can drop whatever I
> > want (and use), easily accessible via the (popup or not) taskbar.
> > 
> > If we could implement something like this, I feel we implement the best
> > of two worlds - having the ability to implement my own "personal
> > toolbar" (and perhaps a separate window that can pop up, with customized
> > placement of icons) and still not having to implement the ?"silly"
> > desktop icons? way of thinking.
> 
> Agreed -- having a tool bar (e.g. the XFce4 and CDE panel or creating
> child panels in KDE/Gnome to launch favorite apps) is a much more
> efficient way to work with applications -- what would really be nice is
> if the panel, a child panel, or taskbar could be integrated into the
> file manager to allow for dragging and dropping shortcuts to favorite
> files, folders, and drives rather than having ungainly icons cluttering
> up the desktop.  (I mount my drives right from the launcher menus or the
> desktop menu in XFce).
> 
> The issue here is that people want an easy way to launch/access favorite
> applications, files, folders, and drives.  Desktop icons are one
> solution used in Macs, Windows, KDE, Gnome, et al.  I do not feel it is
> the best solution.
> 
> Makes more sense to me to have everything tucked away on the edges or
> corner of the screen.  This keeps things neat, tidy, and organized, and
> allows to faster access (and fewer levels of navigation) than having to
> minimize/rollup/move application windows or show/hide desktop (plus your
> backdrop image is no longer obscured by a bunch of icons and text
> labels).
> 
> Integrating the panel, a child panel, or taskbar with the file manager
> to allow for shortcuts to favorite files, folders, and drives with drag
> and drop placement from the file manager should be added to the next
> version of XFce4 rather than desktop icons.  (Adding Mozilla/Firefox
> bookmarks to both the panel and the desktop menu would be a very nice
> feature as well!!!)
> 
> > 
> > Just my 0.02 cents, hopefully at least some of you agree (desktop icons
> > just add bloat, IMHO).
> 
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-- 
Sami Samhuri
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