>>>>> "DS" == Dave Sherohman <esper at sherohman.org> writes:

    DS> On Tue, Jan 29, 2002 at 01:03:35PM -0600, Rodd Ahrenstorff wrote:

    >> The Lycoris menu usually does not list the application name because so many 
    >> are simply not descriptive.  Kooka for example is a scanner application.  In 
    >> the menu its "use a scanner".  Xine is "DVD/DiVX Player"...simple.

    DS> Simple for the user, sure.  Sounds like a support nightmare,
    DS> though...

    DS> "Hey, TCLUG list!  I just installed my new Linux box and my scanner
    DS> doesn't work."

    DS> "What app are you using?"

    DS> "I dunno.  I just click on 'use a scanner' and it does X instead of
    DS> Y."

But most home users don't have any access to support.  Making the
application usable to them at the expense of making it hard for
sysadmins they don't have, seems like a very reasonable tradeoff.

And if they can get to an organization like TCLUG, or are forced to
dig in and diagnose the thing themselves, it isn't that hard to find
the link.  And, anyway, it's no worse than windows (have you tried to
find where internet explorer REALLY lives, lately?), which has support
already.

The payoff seems to go to burying the app name.  Anyway, using KDE is
just as bad, but not as helpful.  Try to find the "archiver", for
example....  It sure ain't /usr/bin/archiver....  So you're eating
this cost anyway, you might as well have DESCRIPTIVE names and get
some payoff.

For that matter, I'm pretty convinced that coming up with a nearly
icon-free screen would be a big help.  Icons are ambiguous and suck
("oh, yeah, the tyrannosaurus head, that means a web browser").  Words
like "mozilla web browser" are a lot better.

R