Menus revisited

Jeff Waugh jeff.waugh at ubuntu.com
Fri Jan 13 01:32:41 GMT 2006


<quote who="Robin Sonefors">

> I keep hearing the explanation "they can start it from a terminal, so it
> doesn't need to be in the menu"

That alternative route is used on the rare occasions that the preferences
(or functionality - these are not the same things) are of little interest to
warrant their immediate exposure in the user interface. There are *lots* of
cool there-if-you-care-to-know-about-it things for users to find on Ubuntu!

> but at the same time I see you hiding the terminal "so that new users
> don't get frightened"

Two important answers:

 a) It's not hidden, it's in the Accessories menu.

 b) The rationale for things like this has nothing to do with "so users
    don't get frightened" [1], it is all about carefactor and relevance.
    Some of the people who we want using Ubuntu *love* the terminal (and
    everyone on this list counts for one of those people), but the vast
    majority of people out there just don't care for it and don't want to
    know about it. Keeping irrelevant crap out of their way is good. But
    it's always there for us. :-)

- Jeff

[1] though, obviously, we don't have exploding file icons with sound effects
    sampled from real life explosives because that *would* frighten users.

-- 
linux.conf.au 2006: Dunedin, New Zealand               http://linux.conf.au/
 
     "World domination is a community responsibility." - Michael Hall,
                                LinuxPlanet



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