Spatial Nautilus or windows training

[Steve Bergman]

> > 
> 
> I still detest the spacial mode. The mode seems just like NT4. I opened 
> windows on the long trail of open NT windows. I then moved all the open 
> windows all over the place, closed them, then went down the trail of 
> windows again.
> The NT windows opened in the location tha they were relocated to. The 
> size was the same as the relocation. I see no difference.
> 
> About having to run a registry program to change user preferences. I had 
> to disable autorun in XP. I had to regedit and change the entry to 
> disable the autorun feature.
> 
> If anything valuable comes from the default setup that nautilus has 
> adapted is that fixing problems in windows is not like a foreign 
> operating system any longer. Nautilus is becoming sort of a windows OS 
> emulator for file management.
> 
> This is not meant as a flame. It is a plead to get sanity back into 
> nautilus, since gmc went away and nautilus is GNOME's file manager.
> 

I also detest spatial.  I've tried to like it.  I've asked others what
they like about it and tried to appreciate those features.  And I still
despise spatial.

I think the really important question, though, is which is easier for
new users.  And I can't help but feel that spatial makes things
unnecessarily confusing to the novice and hides too many features that a
novice *would* want.  It's a simple switch in gconf.  I strongly believe
that fedora should ship with spatial turned off by default.  More
advanced users will know how to turn it on if they want it.  

I'm curious, was spatial just someone's neat idea or is it backed up by
some sort of usability study, or commonly accepted UI principles?

-Steve Bergman