content/posts/2007-04-06-catering-to-the-lowest-common-denominator.html


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---
date: "2007-04-06T15:56:59Z"
title: Catering to the Lowest Common Denominator
---

<p>The <a href="http://kde.org/">KDE</a> team is working on a Dolphin, a new next-generation file
manager.  How many next-generation file managers do we need, anyway?
They still haven't finished fixing the broken ones from the last
generation.  I just read
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070405-afirst-look-at-dolphin-the-kde-4-file-manager.html">this Ars Technica preview</a> of Dolphin, which aptly states:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In many respects, Dolphin is reminiscent of the Nautilus file browser
  from the GNOME desktop environment.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Nautilus's defining characteristic has always been the uncanny ability
to waste a colossal amount of screen real estate to convey irrelevant or
redundant information.  Believe it or not, some of the things <a href="http://pablotron.org/reviews/nautilus-PR2/" title="2001 review of the Nautilus file manager.">I wrote
about in 2001</a> still haven't been
fixed.  </p>

<p>But hey, everything old is new again, right?  Check out the
awesomely efficient use of screen space in this Dolphin picture:</p>

<p>
<img src='http://pablotron.org/gallery/misc/kde_dolphin4.jpg'
  width='600' height='381' border='0' title='new kde file manager'
  alt='new kde file manager'/></p>