On Fri, 20 Jun 2003 10:33:27 -0500, w9ya wrote: >> - -It would be nice if by default rpmdrake would show software that is >> installed. IMHO, there should be an options dialog, which has things >> like "show installed software in searches". >> >> Is there any reason why installed software can not be under a seperate >> branch of the tree view? > > Any reason it can't be in the same program, from a user's perspective ?
Talking from a user's perspective- my assumption would be that a typical user wouldn't see the need to start one program to add or remove another program. Again this is just my gut feeling, but I've seen anecdotical evidence that as far as a user is concerned, when a program isn't on the desktop or menu, it doesn't exist. My conclusion: don't bother with the extra step of graphical software (de-)installers, why don't we just transparently install / remove software based on what the user indicates he wants in his menu or on the desktop? Of course there are gotchas with this approach, for instance, the user should be able to edit his menu without having the permissions to install/remove software. But this could also be handled transparently. Next to this it would have to be extremely easy to add programs. I envision the 'What to do?' menu always containing the common choices and when a user clicks a not yet installed application, then a installer should pop up explaining that it needs to download something, please wait, or that it needs the installation CD. Descending back to reality, -- Reinout
