11–20 of 21 posts
I know the author makes the distinction once, but he continued to use this incorrectly and he may as well have referred to a love hate relationship with the Mac OS Desktop, Cygwin Desktop or FreeBSD Desktop. Heaven forbid should he have used the term 'GNOME Desktop'.
Yeah, the problems the author has with Gnome are only problems as part of the "regular people wanting to use Linux/Gnome" argument. Basically, a form of NIH syndrome. Why stop at the browser or IM client though? Technically, Gnome itself only exists because of that same mindset (not being satisfied with KDE's initial license). Linux people tout the fact that you can install whichever application meets your needs (or…
>Why stop at the browser or IM client though? Technically, Gnome itself only exists because of that same mindset (not being satisfied with KDE's initial license). The trouble with "why stop there" arguments though is that they can make any reasonable suggestion seem absurd. There was a valid reason to create Gnome, but is there a valid reason for Epiphany? >I would never presume that people who are predominantly volu…
Gnome worked to create Human Interface Guidelines, and wanted a web browser (which is a fairly fundamental part of a desktop environment in this day and age) that used those guidelines to provide a cohesive experience.
Here was an announcement email which explains some of the reasons for it's existence:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/epiphany-list/2008-April/msg0...
I would say that options 2 and 3 that you propose are nonstarters.
I feel weird that I've found myself in a position defending Epiphany. I don't mean to be, it's a shitty browser.
I just don't find it puzzling that a desktop experience project would want to be in control of their own web browser which uses their own underlying technologies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why stop at the browser or IM client though? Technically, Gnome itself only exists because of that same mindset (not being satisfied with KDE's initial license). The trouble with "why stop there" arguments though is that they can make any reasonable suggestion seem absurd. There was a valid reason to create Gnome, but is there a valid reason for Epiphany? >I would never presume that people who are predominantly volu…
I would argue that there is just as valid a reason for Epiphany as there was for Gnome. Epiphany was created after Galeon (another Gnome web browser that nobody used). Gnome worked to create Human Interface Guidelines, and wanted a web browser (which is a fairly fundamental part of a desktop environment in this day and age) that used those guidelines to provide a cohesive experience. Here was an announcement email wh…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would argue that there is just as valid a reason for Epiphany as there was for Gnome. Epiphany was created after Galeon (another Gnome web browser that nobody used). Gnome worked to create Human Interface Guidelines, and wanted a web browser (which is a fairly fundamental part of a desktop environment in this day and age) that used those guidelines to provide a cohesive experience. Here was an announcement email wh…
Note: That was the announcement of the shift from Gecko to WebKit, not the launch of Epiphany itself (which was years earlier).
I found the reasons they list for the switch still relevant as reasons for the existence of the browser, however.
A few thoughts from a former GNOME release manager... FLOSS developers, particularly those writing code in their spare time, hack on whatever they feel like. Usually because they find it fun. This is why we have jokes about the number of people writing IRC clients in the 90s, which apply to the number of people writing Twitter clients this decade. :-) GNOME is a meritocratic collective of individuals (some of whom wo…
A few thoughts from a former GNOME release manager... FLOSS developers, particularly those writing code in their spare time, hack on whatever they feel like. Usually because they find it fun. This is why we have jokes about the number of people writing IRC clients in the 90s, which apply to the number of people writing Twitter clients this decade. :-) GNOME is a meritocratic collective of individuals (some of whom wo…
A very nice reply, thank you. I believe though that there is a real problem of code reuse vs. reinventing the wheel in the FOSS community. One of the main rationales of open source is collaboration, but very often, developers choose to begin new projects rather than attempting to collaborate on an existing codebase. Instead of harmonious group effort, we end up with a "tower of babel" of competing projects. Choice an…
vs.
"I feel like writing a high performance, multi-node key value store, just to prove that I can" OR "I enjoy coding with X, and I think I could make a really cool browser with it" OR any other number of motivations.
Some of those motivations produce a Redis, a guiding principle, a community, co-developers and a market. Some of the produce a SourceForget project that is never heard from again, let alone improved beyond alpha quality.
But that's a lot of flowers blooming, and there's no shortage of developers realising that FLOSS is where the action -- and practical education! -- is.
DVCS and social coding venues like GitHub make it all the more easy to start, share, and improve.
You'll probably see all of that as messy and inefficient. Most experienced FLOSS developers see it as a necessary by-product of open learning, development and innovation -- our process.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Pidgin debacle elaborate
Basically, the users of Pidgin said "We want X" (I forget what X was). The developers said, well we don't want X and we only really make Pidgin for ourselves. It's just because we were feeling nice that we released it for you guys to use in the first place, we don't owe you anything.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A very nice reply, thank you. I believe though that there is a real problem of code reuse vs. reinventing the wheel in the FOSS community. One of the main rationales of open source is collaboration, but very often, developers choose to begin new projects rather than attempting to collaborate on an existing codebase. Instead of harmonious group effort, we end up with a "tower of babel" of competing projects. Choice an…
"Choice and variety are good, but they need to be balanced against the principle of trying to produce the maximum amount of value from an investment of time and energy." vs. "I feel like writing a high performance, multi-node key value store, just to prove that I can" OR "I enjoy coding with X, and I think I could make a really cool browser with it" OR any other number of motivations. Some of those motivations produc…
"I will never stop using the Gnu/Linux desktop, not because Gnome and KDE are absolutely the best, but because Gnu/Linux offers me complete control over how my desktop looks feels and works and the software it uses is open source and free." Then install another piece of software rather than the Gnome-branded software. In Linux, I can eat my cake and have it too if I really want to -- I can run Amarok but use Gnome if…
Seriously. I've used GNOME since 2003, but these days I spend 95% of my time in Emacs and Conkeror. I keep the panel around because the wifi widget is nice, and I use nautilus a couple of times a week for the few things that are awkward to do in a shell. But GNOME is nothing more than a starting point... a blank canvas.
A few thoughts from a former GNOME release manager... FLOSS developers, particularly those writing code in their spare time, hack on whatever they feel like. Usually because they find it fun. This is why we have jokes about the number of people writing IRC clients in the 90s, which apply to the number of people writing Twitter clients this decade. :-) GNOME is a meritocratic collective of individuals (some of whom wo…
Do tell.