On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 16:42, Luke Benstead
<kazade@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,
I'm sort of thread hijacking a little here (apologies for that), but this is actually close to something I've been meaning to bring up here for a while.
On my phone, when I set it up for the first time I was asked if I want to set up certain accounts (e.g. flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc.) and by doing so I unlocked features (e.g. downloading contact pictures, uploading pictures to flickr etc.).
What with Ubuntu becoming "social" I'm wondering if we should be doing something similar, a sort of online account manager which manages the accounts across the desktop.
Here's my thinking, imagine the first time you login to Ubuntu you are provided with an account setup wizard that allows you to register accounts for different purposes. For example:
* Imgur, Flickr, ImageShack, Picasa TwitPic, FB* (image hosting services)
* Twitter, Facebook*, Identica, Google Buzz (social networking)
* Ubuntu One, Dropbox (file hosting services)
* Google Talk, MSN, Jabber (IM services)
* Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo (email services)
Adding each of these would add them to the appropriate application (e.g Gwibber, Evolution, Empathy) but would also unlock features (e.g. Right clicking and image in Nautilus might have a "Share on Flickr" option).
I think some kind of global account system, with an API would allow us to code some really cool stuff into the desktop. So, as a concrete example, Shotwell might be able to query for a list of available image hosting services that the user has accounts for, and provide an "Upload to..." option.
I'm also thinking that the account manager itself could use a extension system for the accounts, so installing packages like account-manager-flickr would add it to the account manager... or something like that.
Anyway, sorry to take this slightly OT, just thought I'd throw this out there,
Luke.
thank you!!!