Ubuntu Wiki

The current menu structure is less than ideal in certain places.

Use Cases

• Sally uses Ubuntu because her stepson installed it for her. She is confused by System Tools and System menus. She doesn't understand the separation.
• Ernie is a car salesman who uses Ubuntu for accounting, e-mail with Evolution, and occasional Web browsing. One day he realizes that there is an "Evolution" item in the "Office" menu that does exactly the same thing as the "Evolution Mail" item in the "Internet" menu. "That's a bit silly", he thinks.
• Lorelle uses Ubuntu's Text Editor regularly to edit wiki pages before pasting the text into the wiki itself. As a result, she mouses over the "File Browser" menu item several times a day on her way to the "Text Editor" item. One days she decides to try this "File Browser" thing -- only to discover that it does exactly the same thing as the "Home Folder" item in the "Places" menu. "That's a bit silly", she thinks.
• Alan, an experienced user in Linux and Gnome, has difficulty distinguishing "Multimedia Systems Selector", "Preferred Applications", "Removable Drives and Media" and "Sound", when he wants to change the default action when an audio CD is inserted.

Outstanding issues

We should probably coordinate with upstream (Gnome) during their 2.14 cycle.

Implementation

General Policy

The following general policy guidelines are followed in each decision

• If an item is primarily launched by a specific MIME type and works with one file at a time, it can be hidden

• The seperation between Applications > System Tools and the System menu must be removed. This will be achieved by removing the items in Applications > System Tools

  • With above, items that are mostly system administration tasks and/or use gksudo should be moved to System > Administration

  • Items which affect only the current user are to be moved to System > Preferences

  • Anything else that is not going to be hidden/removed is moved to Applications > Accessories

• Tools which are likely to simply confuse users are to be hidden or removed
• Tools which have their functionality replaced with another simpler tool are being hidden or removed

Specific Menu Item Actions

• We will follow the following guidelines for what to do with specific actions

Purging "System Tools"

• Applications Menu Editor

  • - replace with Alt+dragging and D&D from gnome-app-install? - move to "System" > "Preferences"?

    • - already has a "Menus & Toolbars" item!

• Avahi Zeroconf Browser
  • - hide if installed by default in Dapper
• Bluetooth file sharing
  • - make appear as gnome-session service, if new gnome-session comes in Dapper/Gnome 2.14 - hide if new gnome-session doesn't appear
• Bluetooth manager
  • - hide due to being crap
• Bug Report Tool

  • - nuke bug-buddy (obsolete with LaunchpadIntegration)

• Configuration Editor
  • - Hide
• Floppy Formatter

  • - Hide due to [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=302038 Replace "Floppy Formatter" with item in Nautilus's File menu]

• Gparted

  • - move to "System" > "Administration"

• Network Tools

  • - move to "System" > "Administration"

• New Login
  • - replace with button in gnome-screensaver
• New login nested window
  • - remove entirely
• Run as different user
  • - remove, not hide
• System Log

  • - move to "System" > "Administration"

• System Monitor

  • - move to "System" > "Administration"

• Ubuntu Device Database
  • - hide (will be available during install?)

Other programs that would add themselves to System Tools need to add themselves elsewhere. -TODO - generate list after ubz

Accessories

• Archive Manager
  • - propose removing as it's available as right click in Nautilus. Inexperienced computer users may find right click less "discoverable".

    - [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=302035 Add "Make Compressed File..." to Nautilus's File menu]

Graphics

• Image Viewer
  • - Hide. - Slideshow item in Nautilus? (the Finder has it...)
• XSane Image scanning program
  • - Scanners now accessible via GIMP, so hide.

"Internet" and "Office"

• GNOME BitTorrent

  • - Hide.

• "Internet" > "Evolution Mail" vs. "Office" > "Evolution"

  • - upstream is working on seperate icons for each item ("Calendar", "Tasks", - if the above doesn't come, fix the menu item in Office to say Groupware and to use a better icon

• OpenOffice from Template

  • - hide

Sound and video

• "CD Player" - nuke
• "Recording Level Monitor"
  • - hide for Dapper - should be incorporated into Sound preferences - nuke in the meantime?
• "Rhythmbox Music Player" - keep
• "Serpentine Audio-CD Creator"
  • - should be integrated into Nautilus in an obvious way - keep in the meantime
• "Sound Juicer CD Ripper"
  • - should be integrated into Nautilus in an obvious way - keep in the meantime
• "Sound Recorder"
• Totem
  • - hide by default
• "Volume Control"
  • - should be incorporated into Sound preferences - hide in the meantime
• "Volume Monitor"
  • - should be incorporated into Sound preferences - hide in the meantime

known caveats: make certain hiding applications does not remove it from Open With menu.

• right click-menu on menu-items should contain a "hide icon"-option

Shortening "System" > "Preferences"