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["pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx" <pjssilva@xxxxxxxxx>]

I have never used OS X, so I can not comment about it.

I have always thought that it was easier to navigate the application
menu from the Gnome 2
when compared to windows messy starting menu where applications were
everywhere and could easily grow to an unusable state. So I don't
think the messy windows menu is a good point to start.

Phone/desktop OS are not the best models for a desktop OS. For
example, windows is receiving a very harsh criticism for trying to
create a weird hybrid. Moreover I also use an Android phone. My phone
uses Go Launcher because it has nice folders that I can use to
categorize my applications. It is much faster to see all the
categories in one screen and from there open the right folder than to
move around many pages of apps. People that I know that use iOS also
and that have many apps also tend to categorize them in different
pages for different categories. So they have the games page(s), the
media page, the Internet page, etc. The same happen with the Android
users I know that don't use a launcher with good folder support.
Finally good folder support is one of the major features in Android
4.0 default launcher. Hence Android and iOS do have support for
categorization, they only don't have default categories. The user is
considered responsible for the categorization.

What Linux system do (up to now, as Gnome is moving away from it) is
to give the user some predefined categories. I think this is good, it
is a starting point which is naturally useful as a desktop usually
have many more applications installed than in a phone.

Now, I would really like to hear the *reasoning* against having
default categories. Why it is preferable to let the burden to the user
do all the job for each new applications he/she installs (and all the
installed applications that come by default). Sure, it is impossible
to find a good categorization that fits everyone. But we can find a
reasonable initial one. The current one is good enough for me.

Another nice question is what to do with shared computers. User A
installed application X and categorized it in his W category. What
happens to user B? He might not have W category. He might think that
the best category is Z not W?

best,

Paulo

2012/6/16 Connor Carney <ccarney@xxxxxxxxx>:
> A look at other operating systems suggests that categorization is not
> necessary: out of all of the current-generation UIs, the only one that
> offers prominent categorization of installed applications is KDE.
>
> Mac OS has never categorized applications.  Current versions of OS X provide
> a dock, an alphabetical list and a search box.
> In Windows, each installed application creates it's own group in the start
> menu, so it's effectively just a list of applications in the order that they
> were installed.  Windows 7 additionally provides a list of recent apps, a
> dock, and a search box.  No meaningful categories in sight except perhaps
> "System Tools".
> GNOME shell and Unity support searching by category, but don't provide a
> categorized list.
> Android provides a home screen, an alphabetical list, and a search box.
> iOS provides a home screen, a search box, and Siri.
>
>
> The users of those systems generally seem to be able to find their installed
> applications without categories.
>
> Part of what complicates things in Unity, though, is the proliferation of
> non-application system features in the applications list.  For example, the
> first row in my list of installed applications consists of Additional
> Drivers, Adobe Air Application Installer, Advanced Settings, AisleRiot
> Solitaire, Appearance, Archive Manager, Backup, Banshee, Bluetooth,
> Brightness and Lock.  Only two of those (AisleRiot and Banshee) are
> "Applications" from the end-user perspective.
>
> (side note: WTH is "Brightness and Lock" a combined item?)
>
> Perhaps if we filtered out things like system tools (use control center) and
> file viewers (just open the file) in the default list, category browsing
> would be less of an issue for non-searchers.
>
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-- 
Paulo José da Silva e Silva
Professor Associado, Dep. de Ciência da Computação
(Associate Professor, Computer Science Dept.)
Universidade de São Paulo - Brazil

e-mail: pjssilva@xxxxxxxxxx         Web: http://www.ime.usp.br/~pjssilva