Filesystem - hiding system folders?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 29 March 2006 19:04, Peter Garrett wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 14:49:42 +0200
> Alan McKinnon <alan at linuxholdings.co.za> wrote:


> > Don't underestimate the ability of the average human
> > being to understand how things are different and therefore cope
> > with it. Even the shell - easiest thing in the world to explain
>
> <rant>
>
> Hear,hear! This is the crux of the matter. I gather that, for
> example, to "simplify" the menus, the entry for file-roller has
> been removed in Dapper on the grounds that we "usually" use it by
> opening the relevant file in Nautilus. Thus, unless the user knows
> the command to run it from a terminal or "alt-F2", (another item
> now hidden from view,
> incidentally), that user has no option but to use it as the
> designers have seen fit to decide. Apparently we are all supposed
> to know and love Nautilus, and anyone who prefers a different way
> of working is out of luck, or supposed to know the command. A
> similar movement was started to have Totem removed from the menus,
> with similar "reasoning" : - I gather that hasn't happened yet, but
> is still being considered. How such ideas are seen as remotely
> sensible is frankly beyond me....

I just thought of something. I dimly recall a distro from way back 
when (Mandrake 9?) that offered two menu structures and an option on 
the "Control Panel" to set the one in use. One was simple and 
task-oriented like this:

Office stuff
	Write document
	Spreadsheet
Multimedia stuff
	Play music
	Watch video
	Burn CD

The other was app-oriented like your usual KDE menu where you are 
expected to know that file-roller is an archiver.

This isn't hard to setup or maintain, and it satisfies the needs of 
the majority of users. You an I will use the app menu, our Mums will 
probably use the task style one.

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five