On Sun, 2002-07-07 at 04:04, Martin Mačok wrote: > On Sun, Jul 07, 2002 at 03:37:11AM -0500, SI Reasoning wrote: > > One of the strengths/weaknesses of Linux compared to Windows is that > > there are so many different programs to do the same thing. > > So - is it a strength or a weakness ? :-) both. The strengths include the fact that each program does certain things very well. The weakness is that each program does some things poorly which means that you have to know your programs to know which one to use for which feature you need at the moment. > > > One way to make this more fluid on the desktop would be to have > > unified bookmarks/shortcuts, addressbook and calendar. This would > > allow for setting up the desktop icons in KDE and having it > > auto-magically the same in Gnome. Adding a bookmark to the toolbar > > or any other directory in Galeon, and having it in the same place in > > konqueror, mozilla, opera and lynx/links. Typing contact info in > > evolution and having it also in kmail, sylpheed, etc. Typing in > > event info in korganizer and also having it appear in evolution, > > ical, etc. > > I think that most users don't use so much applications. They choose > the one they like and use it. Many other users will simply want to > turn it OFF too - because they want different bookmarks and different > addressbooks in different apps... > Because each program has its flaws, when a flaw is found it is not unusual for someone to try another program. Eventually, one would settle on a single program for most use while using another program for specific issues/features. I also have no problem making this an option that can be turned off/on, however I believe most people would want it turned on (like most people prefer the unified menus in Mandrake when changing window managers.)
> > If it is not too complex, > > I think it is. And to do it correctly, you must solve the situations > like running two different browsers at the same time while editing > bookmarks (or simply browsing == updating history) in both of them, so > you don't loose the changes from the first or the second one. This is > probably impossible without (non-trivial) explicit support in the > application itself. I am not a programmer, so I can't talk nuts and bolts here... however, if the info is actually stored in a program outside any of these browsers (MySql, LDAP maybe), then it may not be as much of an issue. However for the general desktop user LDAP, MySql, etc are not trivial to set up. That is why I think having it setup by the distribution would be so powerful. At the very least, when a program is closed a merge with the database, etc is performed. > > > maybe unified url history and a unified cache for web browsers. If > > it is possible to have a unified cache, it will save a bit of hard > > drive memory. > > Every browser uses different format of its disc cache and different > strategies how to use it. Use a proxy server (squid) for that. If you > want unified addressbook, use LDAP (openldap). If you want unified > bookmarks, use some bookmarks manager (lynx2links) or most of the > browsers can explicitely import/export Netscape bookmarks. And I think > that using 2 different time organizers (and wanting both to contain > the same data) is almost a non-sense. I know that I could do all of these things, I am talking about something for the general user. I do installs for lots of newbies with Mandrake 8.2 and these issues are often what makes people go back to windows. It is challenging enough when one runs into a programs difficiencies (and most linux desktop programs are not as mature as windows ones yet), it is compounded when these people have to setup a new program only to find that all of their settings are not in this one either, etc. A well implemented feature such as this would actually give linux a leg up on windows programs. I have another idea on this also: unified preferences. All program types such as web browsers, word processors, etc have a set of common preferences. Imagine the delight if you could fill these in only once for each type and they would automagically set up all programs (even ones installed later) of that type. -- SI Reasoning [EMAIL PROTECTED] gpg public key ftp://ftp.p-p-i.com/pub/si-mindspring-pubkey.asc "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -Abraham Lincoln
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