[no subject]

> > To those whom contributed to gnome 1, I deeply thank you and want you to
> > know your legacy will live on... to those whom are dictating what's best
> > for me with gnome 2, I hope you find your greener pasture.
>
>   4) Are you aware that GNOME is a very open and accepting Free Software
>      project that encourages and enjoys contributions from a very large,
>      diverse audience (read: not just hackers)?

I understand this... but, I, like most gnome _USERS_, don't have time to
read 30 some mailing lists for the past year to keep up with the
development of gnome 2. GNOME is a piece of software I use to get my work
done, it's not the main focus of my work like many of the gnome
developers. While I expected many changes in gnome 2, the last thing I
expected was for important features to be marginalized and dropped, so I
didn't have much initiative to jump into the fray months ago to ensure
that something I expected to remain would.

>   5) Do you know about bugzilla.gnome.org, the GNOME project's public bug
>      tracking system, on which you can lodge bug reports, comments on
>      existing bug reports, feature requests and the like?
>
> I think you've missed a few critical points about the changes to GNOME 2.0,
> and certainly the public environment in which they've been made. I strongly
> encourage you to test a recent GNOME 2.0 build, and write bug reports on the
> features - not the applications of terminology - that you miss.

Dropping the functionality of viewports was a absolutely huge decision.
While the mailing list did apparently discuss it, I never saw any
public surveys on the main gnome web page, slashdot, linux today, etc
soliciting information from users about what they are actually using, what
should be dropped or added in gnome 2, etc. To me, the decision reeks of
some managerial usability experts (read people who expect everyone to do
everything the same way and if you don't like it, you're doing it wrong
so conform) deciding that what's best for new users is best for power
users simply because the prevailing theory says so. Until gnome 1 style
viewports are returned (the absolute minimum acceptable means is to have
an option to turn it on under settings or at worst, through
gconf-editor), gnome 2 is simply unusable to me and I won't be able to
participate in bug reporting, comments, etc.


-- 
 Ken Witherow <phantoml AT rochester.rr.com> ICQ: 21840670
  http://krw.2y.net  <- so good, it's censored in China
    Linux 2.4.18 - because I'd like to get there today
to remain free, we must remain free of intrusive government