Re: Fw: Incessant Horse Flogging.

["Bowie J. Poag" <bpoag comcast net>]

Hi  Greg,

> During the last few months some boring small steps in the wrong direction
> have been proposed. Do you think they were in the right direction?

Do I think Gnome is developing in the right direction? In an overall sense,
yeah, i'd say things are going in the right direction, albeit slowly.
Specifically,
however, there are alot of things I would change.  In my opinion, this
project is wholly concerned in imitating and/or building things which have
already been built. It seems no one is willing to stop and look at it from
50,000 ft....no ones willing to try something new and unproven.  Its like
the people involved in deciding what makes it onto the desktop are terrified
of introducing an idea that isn't already seen in Windows or OS X.

> Then tell us what direction that is and show us why it is right.

If you're in a situation where all you're doing is mimicking what someone
else has already done, you are resigning yourself to 2nd place. In order to
take the lead, _you_ need to be the one who's building something new... Let
them play catch-up to _you_. Not the other way around. It just seems like an
awfully big waste of time to build something so wonderful, and shackle it to
the "perpetually not quite as good as other platforms" monicker.

> Tell us how can you can have a right direction when there isn't even
> a destination. World domination doesn't cut it.

I agree. World domination isn't the destination. The destination is to give
something to people thats better than whats already out there. Nothing less,
and nothing more. I'm honestly surprised you think theres no ultimate goal
to what people are doing here. Anything less than what i've just said
summarizes Gnome as nothing more than years of pointless tail-chasing and
directionless labor.

> Since you're still thinking in terms of visions, you have a problem.

I'm trying not to laugh at that statement....And failing miserably. :) You
should write motivational posters.

> A vision cannot be shared.

Gnome itself existed as a vision, and remained in that state for quite a
long time. The thousands of people who have worked on it now and in the past
didn't just fall out of the sky in a cosmic accident or stroke of enormous
luck. They showed up here because they believed in a shared vision. Their
work is done _completely_ on the basis of a shared vision.

> Even when everyone is looking at same thing -
> and right now that is not so - they still see it differently. It takes
> a lot of effort to get past the chimeras and know what you're looking at.

I completely agree.... But wouldn't it be nice to know which are chimeras
and which are tangible, implementable ideas? :)


Cheers,
Bowie




>
>
> Ciao,
> Greg Merchan
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