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Hello.

I'm using KDE since six months ago and I love where you are trying to go. Yesterday I was thinking about Nepomuk and its tags. Nowadays I don't use its tags, I don't see the point on that. I already have my files sorted in a very complex folder hierarchy and my tags would virtually be the same as the folders and it would be a lot of work to tag every thing now and every time I download something, just to get a little improvement.

I'm not sure whether this is an original idea or is exactly what you (KDE guys) are trying to get, but I came to think: why don't stop using folders and start using tags instead? Because folders are a very static thing, you cannot have the same file in two different folders,. Tags are much more powerful.

The idea is:

1. Have all files in a single folder, in /home/user/files for example, without any order but perfectly tagged.

2. Every time you download something or copy it to your system you aren't asked for the folder where you want to put it, but for the tags you want to add to it.

3. When you open Dolphin you don't see your folders, you see a list of selectable tags, a list of selected tags, and all the files that match those tags. A case of use would be:

3.1. You open Dolphin and see all your files and a list of selectable tags (music, rock, pictures, php, friend, etc.). Its size depend on how many files are tagged with that tag.
3.2. You hit "music" tag and you see all your mp3, your band's related wallpapers, your lyrics odt's, etc.
3.3. Now, selectable tags may not be the same, because there's no file tagged with "music" and "php".
3.4. Now you hit "friend" and you see all the pictures of your friend's concert.

I guess there would be a hundred of problems with this behaviour, but I think it would really be the "future desktop", something really new and useful that takes advantage of all the hard work you guys are doing.

Thanks for reading, I suppose there are like a million gramatical errors in this post, hehe.

How would someone using non-KDE apps, or even the terminal, work with their files?

Keep in mind for Dolphin they are working on the ability to browse by tag, and someone else is working on a new file save/open dialog that uses tags instead of or in addition to saving in folders, so your idea is basically for getting rid of existing functionality, the new functionality you are proposing is already in-progress.

Btw: You can have files in different folders by using hardlinks.

TheBlackCat wrote:How would someone using non-KDE apps, or even the terminal, work with their files?

Keep in mind for Dolphin they are working on the ability to browse by tag, and someone else is working on a new file save/open dialog that uses tags instead of or in addition to saving in folders, so your idea is basically for getting rid of existing functionality, the new functionality you are proposing is already in-progress.

Ok, then it's not my original idea. Maybe we can have a system setting like "folder oriented desktop | tag oriented desktop". Non-kde apps would work exactly the same as they do now, files are still there, in some folder, is just that kde apps don't take care about folders anymore.

And about "losing functionality"... This is not about loosing functionality, is about another paradigm of use, is about getting rid of old/less-efficient ways of working. I think at some point you have to break with everything and progress. IMHO, most times the "backwards compatible" thing is just a stone tied to your foot. But I know talking is easy, putting it into acts is not.

1. Partially realized. See drop2tag or other plasmoid connected to Nepomuk(tag View?).
2. You can have one file in many places -> use links
3. KDE developers team tries to realize your idea. Dolphin would be orphanded or reorganized in the future. Actually KDE team are playing with tools like GNOME's Zeitgeist(it's not one of tool, but he designed very similar tool).

I know I can use links, but I don't want to link every mp3 in my lyrics folder and viceversa.

I'm glad to read that this is the goal, I didn't read that anywhere. I have nothing to add then.