unity-design team mailing list archive

[Omar B. <estelar57@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would like a lens that does that, is browsable and probably also replace nautilus :)

the nearest thing I seen is probably in kde.

Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 09:18:44 -0600
From: isantop@xxxxxxxxx
To: t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx
CC: unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Unity-design] Replacing Nautilus

In my opinion, what Ubuntu really needs I not to replace Nautilus, but to replace the file system it browses. Obviously, it will still be there for system purposes, but it should not be exposed to the end user by default.

The concept of the file system is just no longer relevant to modern computing. A tag-based organization system is much more useful, and more user friendly. 
When a file is saved, instead of choosing a folder to save the file in, they can assign one or more tags. Then, to find a file, the user could simply show all files, with filters for tags. They could also search for specific tags. 

This provides similar functionality to a modern filesystem, with the benefit of being easier and potentially faster to use, which brings it inline with other Unity goals nicely.
On May 6, 2012 2:56 AM, "Thorsten Wilms" <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 05/06/2012 12:32 AM, Gregory Merchan wrote:


While emblems allowed some distinction, a

tweak to the icon color would have allowed distinctions that carried

over into the modes with smaller icons.




Uniform walls of folder icons are indeed not very helpful. An old concept, going beyond just color or emblems:

http://thorwil.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/infolders-informative-folders/






Mainstream GNOME has all but abandoned Nautilus in favor of

single-purpose applications. That could be just an implementation

detail, but I don't think I've seen the kind of cohesion that you'd get

from a good workplace shell, like Nautilus could have been. Unity

development seems to be proceeding on the premise that a file manager is

not needed.




Renaming, moving, copying and deleting files hasn't been addressed outside of file managers (or the commandline), so I don't see how current GNOME or Unity could do without.






As I see it, there's a need for Unity to have it's own file manager. I

haven't seen any designs for this, at least none I liked enough to

remember. Is anyone else giving this any thought? What's going to

replace Nautilus?




I agree with much you said and do think this should be addressed. I have to warn against starting a design from "replacement for Nautilus" or "a file-manager", though. The best answer is not necessarily an application, technically or in appearance.






The Dash, the file dialogs, Nautilus (or similar file-managers) and the commandline all offer different modes of access with varying capabilities. That's a whole library of mental models a user needs to pick the best way for some tasks, plus the cost of choosing many times over.




- Are all the differences necessary; what are the costs and opportunities of unification?

- Could at least file-open dialogs be made similar to the Dash?

- Could we avoid file dialogs entirely?

- Could the Dash be extended for managing files or could a file-manager be Dash-like?

- Are the file and folder semantics even the right answer to user needs?







-- 

Thorsten Wilms



thorwil's design for free software:

http://thorwil.wordpress.com/



-- 

Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~unity-design

Post to     : unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~unity-design

More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp



-- 
Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~unity-design
Post to     : unity-design@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~unity-design
More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp