Re: Getting to Topaz (Was Re: getting on a longer release cycled)

[Maxim Udushlivy <maxim udushlivy gmail com>]

Havoc Pennington wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Travis Reitter wrote:
>   
> > 1. Pick a short list of major concepts to put into Topaz.
> >
> > We don't need perfect consensus at this stage, but it'd be nice to start
> > forming some agreement. Concepts ("superfeatures" across the
> > platform/desktop) would be along the lines of "People as a first-class
> > object", "Integrating Web apps and desktop apps", "User tasks instead of
> > individual apps", "Pervasive integration of Creative-Commons artwork,
> > music, etc.", and so on.
> >
> >     
>
> The concepts thing is just not really right. It's architecture astronaut 
> stuff. If you want to redefine GNOME it should look like a benefit to an 
> audience. Something like:
>   - provide the best way to use the web for today's teenagers
> or
>   - get seniors who find Windows overwhelming in touch with their
>     families
> or (more realistically)
>   - provide the best environment for software developers to work in
> or
>   - provide the ideal console for UNIX-like server operating systems
> or
>   - provide a functional equivalent to Windows for schools and non-US
>     governments that see the democratic value in open source
>
> Or whatever. But it's about people and things you might offer them they 
> don't already have.
>
> Unfortunately a lot of people have the IMNSHO insane theory that the 
> above sort of stuff is "too specific" for something "general purpose" 
> which is sort of like saying a "hammer" is too specific so our product 
> should be "a tool."
>
>   
I remember somebody compared Gnome with a car. But the desktop is an 
environment, so it is not a car, it is a parking. The same goes about a 
hammer: desktop environment is a collection of tools. Different tasks 
require different collections. The items that you mentioned may fit very 
well into one desktop ideology (e.g. simplicity) as several profiles.

It is possible to make a parallel with Eclipse IDE which has profiles 
(they call them perspectives). There are profiles for Java source code 
editing, SVN browsing, debugging, etc. Every profile has its own layout 
and a set of opened sub-windows (hammers). All profiles are Eclipse-style.

Desktops have so-called workspaces (never used them), may be they could 
be extended into task-oriented profiles?!

-----
BTW, do the US government already see the democratic value in 
open-source? ;-)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/wcit_open_source/