GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 522739
Mount icons in the desktop should be specially handled
Last modified: 2018-01-02 18:46:45 UTC
In "Desktop" and "Computer", the context-sensitive menu for devices, mounts, audio disks, etc, should not have the usual menu items available for usual file and folder operations such as copy, move to trash, paste, create link, etc. Those menu items just clutter the menu with a bunch of disabled operations that just doesn't have any relation with mounts, devices, etc. For example, for a mounted partition item, there should only those items in the context-sensitive menu: ---- - Open - Browse folder ---- - Unmount volume ---- - Properties ---- Maybe some other useful operations but nothing more than that.
"me too" I was just staring at the menu for the trash, looking for empty trash, and got caught on "move to trash", and had to think thrice about what I was doing. Same effect.
I think this bug should be assgned to the HIG which currently doesn't seem to say anything about context menus. It's an issue that should be dealt with globally to keep consistency.
What about USB sticks (CF cards, etc) that are mounted read-only, been mounted by the system (thus you don't have rights) or have run out of room? Personally, I find the greyed out icons for Cut/Copy/Paste actions a big timesaver -- if I do a copy and paste, I can instantly tell right now if I can 'do' that, because the icons are there, but context-disabled. If we remove those because of 'clutter' -- the next notification one gets is a 'cannot write to XXX' *after* they've attempted once, twice, three times to do such an action. I agree the HIG should make a decision, but consider all the angles before setting one in stone.
Indeed -- all possible actions for that item should be there, but totally inapplicable ones should be gone.
Starting with version 3.28, nautilus will not handle the "files on desktop background" feature. For better alternatives, read this blog post https://csorianognome.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/nautilus-desktop-plans/