Review Request: Make folderview follow some guidelines

[Steven]

Unless the "Desktop" folder were a symbolic link to the "Downloads"
folder... but this might be confusing to the average user... Would plasma
able to tell the difference, so that as soon a the user implicitly indicates
they want a Desktop folder, it is created separately?

Or would it be possible to have, when plasma starts for the first time, it
reconfigures such programs to use the Downloads folder if the Desktop folder
is not present. This seems too kludgey...

The problem is really that people are really used to a desktop folder for
downloads and for program launchers (sometimes, people don't really know the
difference between these two concepts, as they  think the launcher *is *the
program they downloaded) And, though this can be emulated more cleanly with
icons and a downloads folder view, people might have trouble with this,
especially the need to unlock the desktop to add an icon (not doing so
results in a crash).

In order to avoid alienating users, while not compromising the plasma
desktop ideal, somehow a symbiosis between plasma icons, the desktop folder,
and the downloads folder has to be found.  When people go to their desktop
folder, what they really want to see is the icons on their desktop, and
their downloads. Maybe there is a way to keep these two things separate, but
at the same time leave the Desktop folder as, by default, an abstract folder
that keeps track of these two things, while also letting the user opt out of
this system when it first seems they want to.

  I haven't put much thought into any of this, just throwing it out there.
The problem is that people use the "Desktop" folder for two very different
things: launchers and downloads.

On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Fredrik Höglund <fredrik at kde.org> wrote:

> On Sunday 14 December 2008 17:09, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
> > On Sunday 14 December 2008 10:34:22 Artur Souza (MoRpHeUz) wrote:
> > > Hey!
> > >
> > > On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 12:00 PM, Fredrik Höglund <fredrik at kde.org>
> wrote:
> > > > The warning that the desktop folder will be created when the user
> selects
> > > > "Show Desktop folder" in the config dialog was carefully worked out
> in
> > > > coordination with our usability experts, so I thank you for not
> removing
> > > > it.
> > >
> > > That's why we are discussing this here and didnt commit
> > > anything...from aseigo's point of view it shouldnt never create
> > > automatically the folder thus making the warning useless.
> >
> > Because he doesn't want to promote the use of the Desktop folder?
> Personally,
> > I agree and strongly dislike the use of the Desktop folder, but it is
> still
> > part of the xdg folder spec isnt' it?  I think it is a better idea to
> actively
> > support it than allow users to configure it passively as another folder.
> But
> > whatever the boss says I guess.
>
> While slightly off-topic in the discussion, I think it's important that
> when
> we want to change cross desktop standards that we do this in collaboration
> with the other desktops, and don't unilaterally start ignoring standards
> we've
> helped create, but now decided that we don't like anymore.
>
> If we don't do that then we end up creating problems for users and ISV's
> alike.
>
> An example of such a problem in this case is that Firefox saves all
> downloaded files in the desktop folder by default. If we deny users access
> to it, then they won't be able to find those files.
>
> Regards,
> Fredrik
>
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