Windows users' documents could be imported better

[Nate Loudon]

Hello, I had an idea the other day about a simple way that the migration assistant could be improved. I figured it would easily fall under the paper cut category since it's such a simple fix.

Instead of copying a user's documents, pictures, music, etc from their directories in Windows to a home directory of a new user why not just make symbolic links in the user's home directory? This is one of the first things I do on a new install of Ubuntu when I'll be dual booting with Windows, and it only takes me about 3 minutes. This could easily be integrated into the install process.

It just makes so much more sense for someone who is going to be using the documents and music from both partitions. Why would anyone want 2 copies of all their files? It makes so much more sense to have one copy that both operating systems can access easily. This is especially useful for the following groups of people: 1. New users coming from windows, 2. People with large media libraries, and 3. People like me who mostly use Ubuntu, but like to have their files on their Windows partition because it can be accessed from both operating systems.

So what I'm proposing is that the migration assistant be adjusted to make symbolic links in a user's home directory to their respective Documents, Music, Videos, and Pictures folders instead of leaving the user with empty directories that are not very useful or making 2 copies of all their files. It would be best if these symbolic links could also be added to the bookmarks sidebar in nautilus to make it even easier for users to access their documents (this is another thing that I do right away on a new install).

Nate