Unneeded System Tools menu

[George Farris]

On Mon, 2008-03-31 at 12:48 +0200, Milan wrote:
> In Hardy, all applications that don't really manage system-wide or user
> settings were moved from System->Preferences and ->Administration to
> Applications->System Tools.
> 
> This is a good idea as a general rule since previously both
> configuration menus were bloated by numerous tools. But in the default
> install, adding a System Tools menu in Applications in not
> user-friendly. The two only tools that appear there are hwtest-gtk and
> gnome-system-monitor: these are not likely to be used by the base user;
> furthermore, their use is very different from that of most applications,
> i.e. editing documents, and so on.
> 
> So I suggest we choose either to put g-s-m and back to
> System->Administration, or we hide its icon, adding elsewhere a way to
> start it (a keyboard shortcut?), and the sme for hwtest-gtk. We may
> consider short-term and long-term solutions to this, because the current
> situation is IMHO not very good.

Please don't consider this type of thing, "hide the icon".  There is
nothing more annoying for users than getting used to a certain thing and
then having it completely changed.  Please consider this carefully and
then plan the change with the goal to leave it that way for a long time.

As founder and head of the Cowichan Valley Linux Users Group I have been
helping people install and use Linux for many years and one of the
biggest single annoyances is changing menus and locations of programs on
people.

As more and more people and businesses begin to use Ubuntu, they
want/need to see some stability.  This comment, "gnome-system-monitor:
these are not likely to be used by the base user", is just plain wrong
if for example, in a business setting, the users have been taught to use
gsm only to find it suddenly disappear from their menu.

Please, please consider that these changes affect many, many people.
This is a plea for more long term thinking in where the menu and
preference settings are located.

The best example lately is and I suppose it was a technical reason and
so maybe not avoidable because of gvfs is:  moving the "Removable drives
and Media" from the preferences.  That was really a horrible move.
There aren't even drives in the menu any more and yet it still says
"Drives".  IMHO it would have been better to leave the Tab there with a
note on it informing the user where the preferences had been moved to.
I mean at least give them a clue, right?

Anyway thanks for listening to the rant.
Cheers