I think there are some pretty strong arguments for having the desktop act just like an almost default file-manager window: a) Consistency: - You set your filemanger to "open on single click" - your desktop takes the same setting and behaves just like that - You have your default applications and actions and scripts for filetypes and folders and you get the same on files that are presented on your desktop - You get the - mostly - same right-click menu, no matter where you click on "something" (file, folder, link,...) b) Convenience: - Drag and Drop: A folder draged to the desktop remains a folder and does not turn into "something else" like a folderview. - A file on the desktop is simply(!) easier accessible and less obfuscated by structures (simple being good!) c) Realtion to Real-Life-Desks: - Put the stuff you are working with "on your desktop" and open what you are working on - Maybe even the trashcan on the desktop - it's a not-so-far abstraction of the real thing in your office beside your desk d) It's obvious: There is a folder. On the desktop. There is an icon, that looks like the firefox icon. On the desktop. There is an icon, that looks like a harddrive-icon. On the desktop. There is a trashcan. Looks like something's in it. On the desktop. ... I doubt that there is any point where any user would wonder "oh, I wonder what and where that could be or do?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the other hand, I have absolutely no doubt that this really is not a filemanager's job. And if marlin is supposed to keep this professional "do one thing and do it well" focus, then implementing a "desktop-item-system" into the filemanger itself is like adding paint-tools to a documentviewer. About Grape: While being a neat idea, it fails in some of the strong arguments: It's not as accessible as a simple-folders/files on the desktop. It does not "keep things as simple as they could be". About DesktopFolders: A nice idea. As a widget. But it is a bit weird to create a view, that would be the easiest and most understanable if used fullscreen, witout decoration and show the contents of a specific folder: i.e. $HOME or $DESKTOP ... it's the same thing, just a bit more spiffy. There is the benefit of having the ability to display several folders at the same time, while maintaining structure. At the tradeoff of making things more complicated and "cluttering" the desktop pane. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Excuse me if I am getting carried away now. I'm just taking a break from work and this is great food for the brain-bug! I honestly believe that the best and cleanest way to do this, is to create an application for the desktop that collaborates with marlin. Call it "ocean" or whatever. Now I'm fairly shure I remember marlin's main funktionality not being a libmarlin.so ;) Too bad, because this application could actually use something like that very well - to avoid non-beneficial redundancy and profit from common optimizations and bugfixes. This application would basically be the icon-view-area of marlin, with the special tailored arangement options... scaling options... maybe even "category"-sort-options (like "sort the default icons like in marlin sidebar" or something like that. Call me a heretic, but I have not even looked at what extended-actions is and what it can do. So I'll just speculate that this could come in handy in some cases as well. Configuration of the "ocean" (sry, I just like the idea of marlin not being a fish on dry land) could use the same default settings as marlin, but let them be a different config-file/dconf-key-set (I remember the dozens of "how do I make my desktop icons in nautilus bigger without increasing icon-view size?" "You can't"). Sane defaults. Simple. Brainstorming this: * Goal What should it do? (files, folders, previews, drives, trash,... background-image(?)) What should it look like? (folder-scaling, sorting, alignment, grid, folderviews?) Keep in mind: What should it NOT do? (background image? Animations? Deleting random system files...) * Common ground What funktionality is wanted, that marlin already provides? (rightclick, drag and drop, drawing icons in an area, selection, ...) Can some of this be reused and/or split into a common "file-handling-library"? * Integration thoughts How does Nautilus draw the desktop? What would "Ocean" have to do to be an alternative in gnome-shell/unity/custom-session? Does it need something special like "desktop widgets", "sidebar", "plugs"? (Think of a desktop where no widget will ever cover an icon,... or fan-made-extensions...) - Don't implement, but keep an open mind and the code flexible. What error's (could) occur if started on a de that is already running nautilus/plasma/pcmanfm/...? What happens when the compiz-scale-plugin is used, or virtual desktops, or dynamic-workspaces, large-desktop-environments even...? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So - questions: A) Desktop-Icons Y/n/q? [enter] 1) Standalone, marlin related application? (using some libmarlin?) 2) Marlin-Module? (within the marlin code, so part of the whole thing, but "toggle-able") 3) Plugin? (I doubt this would not combine the problems of 1) and 2) More from me tomorrow after work.