[Panel-devel] The ALI: do we really need or want it?

[Björn Balazs]

Hi,

Am Samstag, 07. Januar 2006 21:08 schrieb Brian Beck:
> I'm sorry I still don't understand, if this new system is going to work
> like
>
> 1. select songs
> 2. juk opens
>
> I prefer todays
>
> 1. juk opens
> 2. select songs
>

it is pretty easy: both ways have to be supported. Users use both ways. Users 
want to use both ways and both ways have to be supported by KDE - how do you 
explain the "success" of the Desktop as a folder? Because it is the only 
reasonably usable content-centric way there is at the moment. The only place 
to put content to and retrieve it quickly. And it is not a good way - only a 
very rare part of the time the desktop free, so Users can access the content 
- Users cannot truely group and lable the content - the desktop-background is 
an important part of the feeling on a computer  - just to name a couple of 
problems.

We are used to the application centric way, because commercial software forces 
us to do it this way. It's the brand, stupid! And if we only wrote a letter, 
how would we know what MS Word was? The brand is in the focus and therefore 
we have to choose an application first. KDE just copied that behaviour.

But now it is time for a change. We have to see that both ways are needed, and 
we have to look if there are even other ways, we do not discuss at the 
moment. Just improving the old Windows 3.1 (TM) Start Menu (TM) will not 
fullfill the task... 

Think further: a user wants to fullfill a task with a piece of content - but 
the software is not installed. Just show a pop-up: Should the missing 
software be installed on your computer? YES - NO - That is what I call user 
friendly! Not possible on commercial systems - but that is one of the big 
chances Open-Source and KDE has. It is not the brand that has to go first! It 
is the user.

Cheers,
Björn