Bug 158487

Summary: Dropping files on Home icon (on KDE's desktop) opens a Konqueror window
Product: [openSUSE] openSUSE 10.2 Reporter: D, D, <dotsa>
Component: KDEAssignee: Stephan Binner <stbinner>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity: Enhancement    
Priority: P1 - Urgent CC: suse-beta
Version: Alpha 1   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: i686   
OS: SuSE Linux 10.1   
Whiteboard:
Found By: Other Services Priority:
Business Priority: Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: --- IT Deployment: ---

Description D, D, 2006-03-16 02:05:29 UTC 
Greetings.

Recently created a new user in OpenSUSE 10.1 Beta 6, and due to the absence of the "Home" icon on the default desktop, created a "Home" icon there by dragging one out of Kicker task bar.

Unfortunately, dropping any files on that new "Home" icon (the one on the desktop, not on Kicker tool bar) opens one more instance of Konqueror.

On Windows, that action "copies/moves" files to the Home (My Documents). On Mac, dropping files onto a link to a Home folder "copies/moves" the files.

Right now "Home" icon on the Kicker is a "application" type of a shortcut and points to "kfmclient". Since that icons is the one usually used for making shortcuts on the desktop (i speak here based on observed Windows experience), what are the chances of making the "Home" icon on the Kicker task bar a "URL" type, instead of the "application" type?

Alternatively, why not put the "Home" icon back on the desktop. I asked KDE people about this and they replied:

=============================================================
the official KDE Home.desktop file is a URL with the value of $HOME. when you 
drag onto it, it pops up the "Copy/Move/Link/Cancel" menu as one would 
expect. 
=============================================================

Since I can't drag and drop files on the "My Computer" desktop icon, or "Home" icon on the Kicker, I think putting "Home" back on desktop would make a lot of sense.  Alternatively, making "Home" icon on the kicker "drag-n-drop"-able would also suffice.

In the interest of all new users, I hope ppl who package KDE at Suse will reconsider the removal of "Home" icon from the desktop.

Thank you for your consideration.
Comment 1 Stephan Kulow 2006-03-16 17:25:32 UTC 
where did  "KDE people" reply that? Because SUSE _does_ use the "official" KDE icon
Comment 2 D, D, 2006-03-17 19:51:02 UTC 
Stephan, thank you for responding.

====== "where did  "KDE people" reply that?" =========

I raised the issue at the kde-usability mailing list.
http://lists.kde.org/?t=114200728600002&r=1&w=2

The response quoted above is one given by Aaron Seigo.

However, I MISSTATED (i.e. WAS WRONG about) the original problem, so the discussion on the list was about an issue that does NOT exist.

Later, I double checked the nature of the problem and presented it in the correct form in this bug report (bugzilla.novel #158487).

====== Clarifying the "Problem" ======

I understand your light confusion about the issue. Let me restate it:

Default official KDE desktop has TWO icons for "Home"
- one on the desktop - type "URL".
  You drop stuff on it, it asks if you want to copy/move/link it.
- another is on the kicker task bar - type "application"
  You drop files on top of that and nothing happens.

Default OpenSuse KDE desktop has ONE icon for "Home"
- it is on the kicker task bar - type "application"
  You drop files on top of that and nothing happens.
- there is NO icon on the actual desktop
  It means there is NO place on the default Suse desktop (short of clattering the desktop itself) I can drop files from applications (like attachments from Kmail)

As described in the original bug report message, to remedy the last issue, I (in accordance with my Windows experience) just drag the "Home" icon from Kicker onto the desktop. And that is how the problem "Dropping files on Home icon (on KDE's desktop) opens a Konqueror window" is created.

======== Possible solutions =================

As you can see, there is nothing fundamentally wrong in Suse's choice of removing the "Home" icon from the default desktop. However, when users like me try to put the "Home" (My Documents) folder back to the accustomed position, attempts to use the new "Home" icon produce unexpected and confusing results.
There are 4 ways this problem can be resolved:

1. People like me (who are used to having "Home" or "My Documents" icon on the desktop for the purposes of dropping thing onto it) can be just ignored. If we want the "Home" back, we will have to realize that "URL" can also mean "local folders" and learn how to created the "URL" shortcut by ourselves.

2. Suse may put the "Home" shortcut of type "URL" back on the desktop.

3. Suse may opt to make the "Home" icon on the Kicker task bar a "URL" type, as opposed to "application" type. (Which, by the way, speeds the opening of the windows by about 3 times because of the "preloaded instance of Konqueror")

4. Suse may come up with some other way to ask new users if they want the desktop to be populated by icons like "My Documents/Home", "Printers" etc.

I hope this time my message is clear.
Comment 3 Stephan Kulow 2006-03-18 14:06:38 UTC 
ok, option 3 is the only one I can live with. And it seems to work fine too. Which opens the question why KDE has two different types anyway.

I prefer not changing this for 10.1 though, but we'll do this later (and I need to talk to Aaron if he knows of a reason :)
Comment 4 D, D, 2006-03-18 17:56:28 UTC 
If the solution #3 is pushed up the stream (i.e. into the official KDE) even better. I saw bugs filed about this in bugs.kde in 2003, with no sensible response. 

Chances are, if Suse wants this done, it will be done. 

Good luck, Stephan.
Comment 5 Stephan Binner 2006-10-12 13:57:03 UTC 
Changed packages to #3.