Re: Greatest Common Factor [Was: GNOME Nirvana]

[Luis Villa <louie ximian com>]

On Tue, 2003-07-08 at 23:21, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> <quote who="Luis Villa">
> 
> > > So, in answer to my question, no, I don't think that GNOME needs to
> > > define a complete Desktop package that meets the needs of the "Greatest
> > > Common Factor".
> > 
> > I am not sold on the 'Greatest Common Factor' bit; it seems to me a sort
> > of tortured way of explaining where we ought to go. But we clearly need to
> > have parity with the proprietary desktops and exceed them where we can.
> 
> Would love to hear further discussion about "tortured way of explaining
> where we ought to go". Note that the GCF goal has nothing to do with parity
> against other desktops.

'greatest common factor' is supposed to be a sound-bite sized way of
describing 'what we are aiming at.' But I for one couldn't tell you
exactly what it means, and it seems clear from this thread that others
can't tell you or are confused as well.

Basically, if the goal of 'what should be in the desktop' can't be
explained in one simple sentence, it probably (though not definitely)
needs re-thinking. I don't think GCF can stand on that- each of those
three words needs a sentence on it's own, as far I can see :) If I'm
wrong about that, please let me know; I do want /some/ simple goal and
standard that I can easily explain to everyone.

Luis