<div dir="ltr"><div>Package: nautilus<br></div><div>Version: 3.8.2-2</div><div>Severity: normal</div><div>Tags: upstream</div><div><br></div><div>Dear Maintainer,</div><div><br></div><div>As heavily discussed upstream [0][1] but not yet reported as a bug in debian</div>
<div>(this report changes that), changes introduced in version 3.6 of nautilus lead</div><div>to a serious UI regression for the default file *manager* on the debian</div><div>desktop.</div><div><br></div><div>The removal of type-ahead browsing has fundamentally changed the behaviour of</div>
<div>the file browser, and it is now impossible to *browse* the filesystem without</div><div>the use of a mouse. The improved *search* functionality is fantastic, but is</div><div>fundametnally a different activity to browsing.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The at times unpleasant and strained conversations in other bugs reports need</div><div>not be repeated here, but from my careful reading stem from some individuals</div><div>having a lack of distinction between the two logically different operations of</div>
<div>searching and browsing.</div><div><br></div><div>Upstream, as is their right, have chosen to attempt to design a UI that pulls</div><div>the concept of browsing into the domain of a search, but I would argue that</div>
<div>even if (infinitely) fast and very smart, search cannot logically be a</div><div>replacement for browsing.</div><div><br></div><div>The fundamental distinction that separates browsing and search (no matter how</div><div>
fast and smart that search becomes) is very simple:</div><div><br></div><div>search is a filter, presenting results from some specified condition.</div><div>type-ahead (browsing) is not filter, but a way to move the "cursor" to the</div>
<div>desired location within the existing (and critically unfiltered/unchanged)</div><div>context.</div><div><br></div><div>To my mind, anything and everything else discussed around this [0][1] (e.g.</div><div>speed, relevance of search-returns) etc is actually of (a distant) secondary</div>
<div>importance.</div><div><br></div><div>And so to the essence of this bug:</div><div><br></div><div>REGRESSION: The nautilus file browser no longer has a keyboard operated</div><div>browsing mechanism*</div><div><br></div>
<div>*To be 100% clear, it does now have a very fast and impressively smart keyboard</div><div>operated searching mechanism that prioritizes results from the current</div><div>directory, but as per my argument, this is completely irrelevant for the use</div>
<div>case of browsing.</div><div><br></div><div>With that summary, and my (perhaps flawed) attempt to describe the *logical*</div><div>(and certainly not *UI design choice*) issue here, comes the difficult bit:</div><div>
<br></div><div>How can debian resolve this bug? Users of sid (right now) and testing (soon)</div><div>are about to be bitten. Options include:</div><div><br></div><div>1. Restoring the lost browsing functionality (type-ahead find) through a patch</div>
<div>to nautilus 3.8(sid/testing) or 3.10(experimental) - very difficult presumably</div><div>without support of upstream (who are very clear on not re-implementing this</div><div>browsing feature, as they firmly believe that the two concepts of search and</div>
<div>browse can be merged) but in the end the only viable solution (short of</div><div>convincing upstream to change policy).</div><div><br></div><div>2. Pulling nautilus 3.4 into gnome 3.8/3.10 - presumably completely impractical</div>
<div>and with escalating difficulty as time goes on.</div><div><br></div><div>3. Replacing the default file-manager in debian's gnome with nemo - this could</div><div>be achieved fairly simply (I've done so on my system) but would be rather odd</div>
<div>from a whole of desktop distribution point of view to have one non-gnome piece</div><div>of software replacing one of the core upstream elements of gnome.</div><div><br></div><div>My intention here is not to start the same sequence of arguments in debian as</div>
<div>have occurred upstream (they can be read in detail at your leisure [0][1]), but</div><div>to ensure that debian has an explicitly acknowledged representation to (and</div><div>from) its community that this issue is here.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I personally think this is worthy of status SEVERE or even GRAVE if one can</div><div>extend those categories beyond technical elements of software and into the</div><div>realm of the human interaction with (and reaction to) it. It is one of the most</div>
<div>intrusive and difficult to deal with changes in UI that I have experienced in</div><div>over 20 years of linux use. gnome3 (which I love) is a UI design choice -</div><div>intrusive but a UI *choice*. This bug is a fundamental muddling up of different</div>
<div>*logical* operations that one may want to perform (which I think explains a lot</div><div>of the animosity between those people who see the logical issue here and those</div><div>who argue that a clever search UI can provide the functionality).</div>
<div><br></div><div>[0] <a href="https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680849">https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680849</a></div><div>[1] <a href="https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680118">https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680118</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>-- System Information:</div><div>Debian Release: jessie/sid</div><div> APT prefers testing</div><div> APT policy: (800, 'testing'), (700, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')</div>
<div>Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)</div><div>Foreign Architectures: i386</div><div><br></div><div>Kernel: Linux 3.10-3-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)</div><div>Locale: LANG=en_AU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)</div>
<div>Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash</div><div><br></div><div>Versions of packages nautilus depends on:</div><div>ii desktop-file-utils 0.22-1</div><div>ii gsettings-desktop-schemas 3.8.2-2</div><div>ii gvfs 1.16.3-1+b1</div>
<div>ii libatk1.0-0 2.10.0-2</div><div>ii libc6 2.17-93</div><div>ii libcairo-gobject2 1.12.16-2</div><div>ii libcairo2 1.12.16-2</div><div>ii libexempi3 2.2.1-1</div>
<div>ii libexif12 0.6.21-1</div><div>ii libgail-3-0 3.8.6-1</div><div>ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.28.2-1</div><div>ii libglib2.0-0 2.36.4-1</div><div>ii libglib2.0-data 2.36.4-1</div>
<div>ii libgnome-desktop-3-7 3.8.4-2</div><div>ii libgtk-3-0 3.8.6-1</div><div>ii libnautilus-extension1a 3.4.2-2</div><div>ii libnotify4 0.7.6-1</div><div>ii libpango-1.0-0 1.36.0-1</div>
<div>ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.36.0-1</div><div>ii libselinux1 2.2-2</div><div>ii libtracker-sparql-0.16-0 0.16.2-1</div><div>ii libx11-6 2:1.6.2-1</div><div>ii libxml2 2.9.1+dfsg1-3</div>
<div>ii nautilus-data 3.8.2-2</div><div>ii shared-mime-info 1.0-1+b1</div><div><br></div><div>Versions of packages nautilus recommends:</div><div>ii eject 2.1.5+deb1+cvs20081104-13</div>
<div>ii gnome-icon-theme-symbolic 3.10.1-1</div><div>ii gnome-sushi 3.8.1-1</div><div>ii gvfs-backends 1.16.3-1+b1</div><div>ii librsvg2-common 2.36.4-2</div><div><br></div><div>
Versions of packages nautilus suggests:</div><div>ii brasero 3.8.0-2</div><div>ii eog 3.8.2-1</div><div>ii evince [pdf-viewer] 3.8.3-2</div><div>ii totem 3.8.2-3</div><div>
ii tracker 0.16.2-1</div><div>ii xdg-user-dirs 0.15-1</div><div><br></div><div>-- no debconf information</div></div>