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> Files. The updated layout in Files gives a better view of your files and folders, and a new view popover makes it easy to change the zoom level and sort order
by johnchristopher 11y ago
> Files. The updated layout in Files gives a better view of your files and folders, and a new view popover makes it easy to change the zoom level and sort order from a single place. You can also now move files and folders to the trash intuitively using the Delete key, rather than the Ctrl+Delete keyboard combination.
It's 2015 and it still baffles me that a basic file manager still need such tweaking, rewriting and brainstorming.
Is there no such thing as a `problem solved, let's not touch it again' in the FOSS world [0] ?
I say that as someone using Debian with xfce and awesome everyday.
[0] Don't know why I specifically mentionned FOSS. Closed source is plagued as well as mentionned bayle a child poster. Chalk it up to fatigue.
- cbd1984 11y ago> Is there no such thing as a `problem solved, let's not touch it again' in the FOSS world ? Is there such a thing in the closed-source world? Because Windows 1... err, Windows 3 (now with tiling windows!), uhhh... Windows 95 (now semi-3D!) uhhh... Metro! That's it!... is certainly a case study in how nothing changes and UI is a solved problem, right? Oh, and I've used WindowMaker across multiple distros, from Red Hat (pre Fedora) through Slackware and now Ubuntu. (Yes, Ubuntu without Unity. Shock and horror and "Can such things be?!?!" line starts on the left.)
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoDesktop UI has barely budged since WIMP became the dominant paradigm in the 80s. There have always been alternatives (Oberon, rio, Cedar, zoomable UIs, etc.), but they've never had any widespread adoption. As of more recent, there have been attempts by various parties (Microsoft, GNOME, Canonical...) to create these tablet-centric, opaque but outwardly simple UIs that are positioned as being groundbreaking and challenging norms, but in reality are some subset of WIMP with certain properties being given more weight than others (e.g. menus and icons over windows and pointers), but with little in the way of any true improvements in discoverability and interaction. Nothing like how all the text on screen is programmable, like in Oberon. That's groundbreaking. Because the desktop shell is what most people ever see, it's a decent proxy for programmers to use providing an illusion of change and progress.
- zxcvcxz 11y agoWell I think GNOME shell is the best desktop experience I've ever had in my life. Pretty sure it's not an illusion.
- WorldWideWayne 11y agoThey took too many OS X anti-patterns such as the ever-present menu bar, for my taste.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- cbd1984 11y agoYou're glossing over a lot of details, and details are what most of usability comes down to.
- amyjess 11y agoHonestly, this is one area I don't really want change. Windows 95 nailed the desktop perfectly, and any attempt to significantly depart from its UI feels like a step backwards. Even Windows 98, with its webby bastardization of Explorer, wasn't as good as Windows 95. I like KDE because I can use it as "Windows 95 with pretty graphical effects", and that's exactly what I want.
- sigzero 11y agoWow WindowMaker! That brings back memories. I could never choose between GNUStep and WindowMaker.
- chimeracoder 11y ago> It's 2015 and it still baffles that a basic file manager still need such tweaking, rewriting and brainstorming. Is there no such thing as a `problem solved, let's not touch it again' in the FOSS world ? This isn't exactly unique to free software. You don't have to search very hard on HN to find threads of people complaining about Finder on OS X and Explorer on Windows, and enumerating the things they wish they could change about it.