[RFC] "Documents Folder" icon in "system:/"

[David Johnson]

On Tuesday 16 August 2005 01:07 am, James Richard Tyrer wrote:

> I believe that the question at issue is only what to use as a
> default.

Fair enough. But this doesn't explain why the Windows way is better than 
the Unix way for a default. I remain unconvinced that there is a 
problem with a plain traditional vanilla $HOME. I don't know of anyone 
(besides you) who has ever complained about this.

My work used to have Solaris/CDE on the desktop for all users. I've thus 
had an opportunity to see newbies from Windows thrown into the "deep 
end" of a Unix-only environment. My observation shows that while they 
may have had problems with the ugliness and clunkiness of CDE, but they 
never had a problem with a home directory.

> Yes, but ... (tm) it is newbies that defaults should be designed for
> since they will not start changing defaults as soon as they first
> login. When they are no longer newbies, they can change settings to
> suit their needs.

It is this philosophy which I have a problem with. Why must the newbie 
be catered to? Why does the desktop design have to revolve around them?

I am completely in favor of sensible defaults. But they need to be 
*sensible*. That means they need to be appropriate for both the newbie 
and the advanced user, and everyone in between. In the case of defining 
a Documents directory, $HOME is the sensible default.

-- 
David Johnson
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