I think this problem is exaggerated. Left alone, how long do you think it would take people to work it out? It’s not like it’s a flight deck interface.
No, it is not. You can see several youtube videos where this happens, but also I had friend trying out Haiku and emailing me telling me that the only way to start applications is to right click on the desktop and find your way all the way down into /boot/system/apps and it is very unconvenient. They found that and used Haiku for a few hours and did not notice that the DeskBar menu is a menu.
This is a real problem, however, it is one that only affects first time users, and, probably not all of them.
As I have already mentionned, Windows 95 had the very same problem, despite their button looking even more like a button than ours, being labelled “Start”, and having an animated arrow saying “click here to begin”, and also having pretty much nothing else on the desktop. The next step would be a blinking red “click here” at the center of the screen. Yet, somehow people would still look somewhere else.
And there is evidence of this in other OS as well, I know someone who maintains a Linux distribution for people who are not very computer litterate, and yes, they ended up clearly labelling the menu button as well because people wouldn’t find it.
So, clearly there is a compromise to make here. I think adding a label or some other marker on the button would be acceptable. I think Windows 95 went a bit too far with the animated arrow, but it was, after all, the first system with such a concept as a “start” menu. Which we aren’t, this has been in Windows for almost 30 years now and was copied by several Linux desktop environments as well.
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I think a label on the Deskbar would probably look rather naff. The blinking red arrow might be preferable if it soon goes away. Or how about a Deskbar label that magically disappears after a few hours. Perhaps that’s what you meant.
For Windows 95 , that was the start of the Start button. After 30 years, people are ( should be ) already used to there being a Start Menu, Other then MacOS, Windows and Linuxes have it, on different corners, but it is there.
For some not-computer-literate ok, it may be difficult to find the button, and that would happen with any OS.
I believe that it was suggested for the Deskbar menu start expanded on the first boot, but I do not remember why that was considered not a good idea. How about a forced mini-HaikuTour ? If some impacient user just “next-clicks” that, well, we cannot help those kind of people.
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Didn’t MacOS Classic have a clickable menubar even before Win95?
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There were some ideas and discussion 3 years ago:
After installation, open the quick guide explaining how to use Deskbar.
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Also, here’s a simple trick straight from Glamorous Toolkit:
If Quick Guide was an application, it could directly point to relevant parts of the Deskbar.
Also Tipster could be a complement.
Having a label beside the Deskbar logo would require testing with all supported languages, ensuring that the text remains on a single line and readable. That is, unless the plan is to just have Haiku as the label text.
Can you run things one time, first session after install? Get an animated character with a big hand to pop up from the vicinity of the Quick Tour script, and drift over to the feather and operate that thing.
A M E N !!! H A L L E L U J A H !!!
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When I first used BeOS (I pronounce “OS” as a single word, not two letters, but only in this case, oddly enough. Every other OS I pronounce the two letters individually), it was on my Power Macintosh 8500/120. So much fun! I came up with a webpage, back then, I started with:
“Why just be cool, when you can… BeOSome!”
I really wish Be hadn’t dropped the ball so much that it killed them… I remember the fun and excitement of Wildcard Software and other software companies (I remember LeBuzz Radio!) coming onboard. I really thought we were gonna have a new platform we could be proud to run! And then… they dropped the BeBox… and then they switched to Intel… and then… they died. And 20+ years later, we have bickering between developers of a BeOS child that hasn’t even left Beta! WHY?!?
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And 20+ years later, we have bickering between developers of a BeOS child that hasn’t even left Beta! WHY?!?
People are prone to bikeshedding. The leaf is the least important thing of the whole OS, yet there are already 125 posts in this thread.
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I know what its SUPPOSED to be, but it rolls off my tongue easier that way. Saying it the “proper” way sounds too stilted to me. Too lengthy, for some reason. And calling it “THE Be OS” really just stilted it beyond belief, to me! But BeOS is dead, so no worries nowadays. Now we just gotta get people knowing the difference between Haiku (Inc.) and Haiku (OS), without actually calling it Haiku(OS)! 
Interesting (but smart move)… this editor actually changes any reference of Haiku(OS) to just Haiku! I have to add the parentheses to actually make it show up! Otherwise it’s just referred to as Haiku! Good work, whoever did that!
I was referring to the argument between PulkoMandy and Cocobean, most recently. But arguing between ANY developers (specified as such or not) is just sapping what little energy exists. It’s politics, at the end of the day. And humans are prone to defending their little sacred cows. Making mountains out of molehills and the like.
As for me, I’d like to just finally be able to download and install Haiku R1. I mean, isn’t 20+ years long enough? Ugh! I’ll be lucky if Haiku R1 is available before Jesus returns!
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Unfortunately, a LOT of audio software has gone flat and more is continuing to go flat. I hate it.
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Not that anyone cares, but… all this time, I thought it was a feather too and have never liked the off-centered positioning.
I don’t use the Deskbar in the default block mode on the side. I put it along the bottom. The thing is analogous to the Windows task bar or the Apple menu bar for me. On Mac OS, it’s “click the Apple menu”. In Haiku, it should be “click the Haiku menu”. Problem is, it looks like a decoration in the default placement.
And the reason you and I and I’m sure a lot of other people thought it was a feather was because… (drum roll, please)… it’s BLUE! There are blue FEATHERS, but not blue LEAVES! Someone show me a real, blue leaf, please! Something that will actually make this choice of color actually make sense. And, the cuts in the leaf, look more like spaces in a feather. Green and amber and yellow and orange and brown are the colors of leaves… not blue!
[rant deactivated…]
That being said… it is what it is and it’s been that way since nigh the beginning, so it intrinsically represents Haiku’s menu, regardless if we agree with the image color or not. I think there are two variations of the Haiku menu that have been offered that I would “prefer” (because they would completely eliminate ANY question or doubt what was being represented), but… it 'tis what it is. And, like Apple… “Haiku will do what Haiku will do”. 