unity-design team mailing list archive

["frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx" <frederik.nnaji@xxxxxxxxx>]

Downloading files is quite easy! Many websites offer a button or an other
type of link labelled "Download". A simple click initiates the procedure,
which copies the remote file to a location on your computer.
It is way more difficult to find the file, once it is downloaded, or to
"Open with.."

I know of the following 4 methods to download a file from a webpage:
a) "Save": automatic - downloads to ~/Downloads
b) "Save as..": manual - user chooses destination drive, folder and filename
(in "gtk-file-chooser")
c) "Download and open": automatic - supported mime types are saved to
~/Downloads and opened
d) "Ask": automatic/manual - user has the choice between "Open with.." and
"Save as.."

did i miss something? /* except for "wget" and "wget -O [ ]" please ;) */

After testing Mozilla 4 Beta, Epiphany and Chromium in Natty for the last
couple of days, none of them offered a comfortable downloading experience.

Here some issues i encountered..
* unwanted automatic app launches [Epiphany]
* inconsistent notification behaviour [Chromium: nothing; Firefox: Downloads
window to foreground; Epiphany: NotifyOSD bubbles]
* confusing context menu entries (Save, Save as, Download, Save Link As,
Save Download Link As etc..)
* no clear statement on where my downloaded file really is or how to go
there
* no Indicator Menu for recently completed downloads (Epiphany has a pretty
AppIndicator, but it disappears once the download is complete.. duh!)
* no possibility to label, tag, add a title or any sort of metadata before
or while downloading
* boring or poor progress indication/information

*GNOME's Epiphany*
- downloads automatically and opens the file automatically once download is
complete (supported mime types).
- streams supported multimedia files via browserplugin
Resulting unwanted application launches are frustrating, especially when all
i want to do is download a few files.
There's nothing more useless to me than the browser plugins for .mp3
playback, but that's what replaces the page i'm viewing when i click a
download link of e.g. an .mp3.

Browser plugins should playback embedded objects within a page, but not open
downloads inside the tab, replacing the focused webpage!

*Mozilla Firefox:*
Firefox offers me to select between "Open with" and "Save File", that's
nearly comfortable ;)
- opens a progress window ("Downloads")
When the download finishes, you can open the file via double click in that
window, or show its folder via context menu / secondary click, which is
useful but complicated.
Fortunately no automatic app launches happen when a download completes, that
saves a lot of nerves.
Except: clicking .mp3 download links.. :P

*Chromium:*
- displays a progress status bar in the main window until the download is
complete; the file remains there until manually launched from that bar or
until the bar is dismissed by the user.
You can open the downloaded file via single click right then and there,
quite comfortable. A context menu offers showing the destination.
There were no unwanted application launches here either, which is wanted
behaviour.
Unfortunately, what can i say.. clicking an .mp3 download link replaced the
page i was looking at with that browser plugin player thing that i never
asked for..


Needless to say, the browser plugins for streaming media are obviously out
of fashion imo.
We need a way of downloading stuff easily, without the trouble of secondary
click or confusing context menus..

Before i spill my brains on these issues, anybody else perhaps?