Hello, I would like to add the following thoughts to the lively debate over the menu re-org... 1> "All Applications" should be moved to the top of the menu: I think the "All Applications" menu-item should be at the top of the menu with a seperator between it and the rest of the items. This will more cleanly seperate it from the simplified Gnome Menu. I am not sure how to clarify the name in a way that tells advanced users to look here for KDE apps and so forth, but it seems like there is confusion rigtht now anout this issue. 2> Desktop Switching tool: Is there a menu item for switching desktops between KDE and Gnome? I can't find one and I know that switchdesk is no longer a supported app. If there is one, it should be added to the preferences menu. 3> The "Preferences" menu should indicate its scope in the title: I think "Preferences" in too vague. It implies global or system settings. Perhaps "User Preferences" is more appropriate. Hope this helps! Johnray
1) I agree but I removed All Applications and went with Extras for now, so no longer applies. 2) switchdesk does still get installed by default it seems. I would not put it in the menu though. You can just choose a desktop when you log in... (which is confusing enough, but) 3) I agree the Preferences/System Tools split is a problem, but I don't have a concrete solution to it at the moment. I'm not a huge fan of the word "user"...
Should the "Extras" menu-item be at the top or bottom of the menu with a seperator between it to more cleanly seperate it from the simplified Gnome Menu?
Extras is better than All Applications, but I find the duplicate categories in the foot menu and Extras still confusing. It seems more logical to have an Extras (or More, or Other) menu in each category. For example: you would have an Extras menu at the bottom of the Accessories menu where all extra accessory'ish applications are. This way you don't have to think whether something is in the top level menu or the Extras menu: It will always be in the top level category. I know you will have two levels in each menu this way, but you already have two levels in the Extras menu anyway. About Preferences/System Tools: KDE Tools should not be available in the Gnome environment (but I think this is already fixed in the latest menus). The Server Settings, Preferences/Control Center, System Tools, etc. could all be available from 1 central place: you could have a Settings menu with all the Gnome interface tools (pretty much like Preferences is now) and in this menu you can have submenus for System Administration (packages, users, passwords, logs, services, switchers,...) Device Settings or Hardware Settings (printers, keyboard, soundcard, mouse,...) Server Settings (apache, samba, nfs,...) Advanced Desktop Settings (sessions, keyboard shortcuts,... don't know if screensaver should be in Advanced?) On a sidenote: - Move Floppy Formatter, System Monitor, Terminal & CD Writer to Accessories (or Utilities?)? - Rename Programming to Development? - Why isn't Network called HTTP Proxy Settings? - It would also be nice (don't know if it's possible) to have a nautilus view where you see all Settings tools on one page, but separated by category (like OSX, I think). Anyway, these are just some ideas. Maybe it can help you while tuning the menus (which is not as easy as it seems ;).
I'm convinced Extras is just inherently confusing. The only sane/nonconfusing thing to do is nuke all the stupid/duplicate apps... sigh. Anyway. I hate to clutter the main menus with an Extras submenu in each - in general, "submenus bad" - I would like to avoid multiple levels. Multiple levels is more OK in Extras since you can just ignore Extras entirely... 1 settings menu to me creates lots of submenus, again submenus ugh. > Move Floppy Formatter, System Monitor, Terminal & CD Writer to Accessories I think is potentially a pretty good idea. > - Rename Programming to Development? "Development" doesn't mean "Programming" for most people. The Programming name is amazingly enough based on some user testing. > - Why isn't Network called HTTP Proxy Settings? Because if there were other per-user network settings those would be in here too, I believe. > - It would also be nice (don't know if it's possible) to have a nautilus view > where you see all Settings tools on one page, but separated by category (like > OSX, I think). Possible but more of an upstream/gnome.org bug than something I'd really like to do in a patch...
I guess you're right about the 'evil' Extras menu and the use of submenus. Maybe you can use some separators in the foot menu to organize the settings and applications a bit more. There are some items in Extras that can easily be transferred to the foot menu (eg Gaim and Gftp), and those 'specialised' apps that most desktop users never use, might as well be dropped from the menu. You could of course also create an Extras menu that isn't shown by default (or is that no longer possible in Gnome2?).
OK, too much stuff in a single bug here. I think most of it is addressed in rawhide. I just redid Extras.