Comment 7 for bug 67314

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Simon Oosthoek (simon-margo) wrote :

The problem is probably that usability is different for everyone. Having this "complexity hiding" by default is maybe desirable for very new newbies, but keeping it hidden and not having a very obvious way of unhiding the complexity will be confusing and limiting to go beyond newbie level.

If file dialogs all had a "show hidden files" option and all file manager had an obvious way to configure them to show hidden files (and ignore .hidden lists), it wouldn't be so bad.

Another way of solving it might be to show hidden files (.hidden and files starting with a dot) in a lower contrast to the background (grey if your bg is white/black).

A risk with completely hiding is that it can lead to confusing and false bugreports as well as breakage when the FSH changes. Also, I think it would be more respectful of the user to not assume he/she is stupid.