Re: Proposing Gimmie applet for 2.22 (was GNOME Panel++)

["Kevin Kubasik" <kevin kubasik net>]

A quick $0.02:

I have been using Gimmie on and off for quite some time now (on and
off since its initial checkin) and have found it to be a significant
step up in terms of a UI over the current Gnome default. The biggest
issues have been with crashers (generally with new/fickle features,
all of which have been addressed below in the list of features to be
addressed/removed)

I would be interested to see a build without all these extras, and see
what performance/the memory footprint are looking like, as currently
long sessions (days to weeks) can see those grow.

However, since we are talking about incorporating it and then
_developing_ it for some time, I would be a strong supporter of such a
move. I think that since most of its 'cool new features' have been
mostly developed, and what would really need to be done is gritty
testing/bug work, it might be hard to attract the development base we
need to get it stable, but if we can mobilize the workforce and/or
provide elegant/sane degradation/fallback to the original gnome-panel,
I would be all for such a move.


My quick, un-researched $0.02,
Kevin Kubasik



On 9/24/07, Alex Graveley <alex beatniksoftware com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The Gimmie applet has been around for some time.  Gimmie is a tab-like
> replacement for the main Panel menubar, providing logical access to
> the concepts of the desktop[1].
>
> For more information, see the Gimmie homepage at
> http://beatniksoftware.com/gimmie.  Gimmie is stored in GNOME SVN, and
> uses GNOME Bugzilla for issue tracking.
>
> Many use it as a replacement for the default Panel menu, myself
> included.  I think many novel concepts exist in it's UI, and I find it
> to be very usable and featured.
>
> Looking towards the future, Gimmie is designed to move towards the
> Online-Desktop model, while preserving access to the features of the
> existing desktop.  This is a niche which none of the new Panel or
> navigation menu alternatives (let alone other desktops) are pursuing,
> and one which I consider pivotal if GNOME is to remain pertinent.
>
> So I'd like to gauge the interest in having the Gimmie applet included
> as part of GNOME.  Either as part of the main suite or in an add-on
> suite.
>
> What's needed to make this happen?  What concerns do people have?
>
> Issues that I see:
>
>    * There has not been a new release since 0.2.7, in June.  A new
> release is brewing, and the Gimmie community is stepping up the
> release engineering around a solid 0.3 release.
>
>    * Lack of dedicated maintainer resources.  Admittedly, I've been
> somewhat lax in my duties due to time pressures.  Luckily, several
> volunteers have stepped up recently offering to take the reins here
> for more reliable releasing.
>
>    * There is an experimental standalone panel version of Gimmie.
> This can be branched into a sub-project, or simply not installed by
> default.  I am *not* proposing to expose this panel alternative as
> part of GNOME.  There are many other interesting panel alternatives
> which are seeing a lot of love.
>
>    * Non-functional placeholders for future features should be removed
> (Flickr, Google Office, Friendster integration).
>
>    * GMail contact integration needs to be fixed or removed by default.
>
>    * Ditto for Gaim/Pidgin online status setting.
>
>    * The Tomboy note category may not be useful to include by default.
>
>    * There are a few experimental UI features that should be removed
> e.g. the timeline view.
>
>    * Saved email attachments only supports Thunderbird's downloads.rdf
> format.  I don't know if this feature can be supported with Evolution,
> and accordingly may need to be removed for now.
>
>    * .desktop change monitoring has been disabled due to crashes in
> the gmenu python bindings.  This may have been solved recently, or may
> require investigation into better alternatives.
>
>    * Preferences and Administration capplets are merged into a single
> Settings category.  This can easily be split into separate categories
> again, if people want to maintain compatibility with the existing
> menubar.
>
>    * The "system" tab is labeled according to the OS's name, e.g.
> Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD.  If this is contentious, we can rename it to
> "Computer", "System", or "Gnome".
>
>    * Different terms are used from the standard GNOME menubar:
> Applications->Programs, Preferences/Administration -> Settings.
>
>    * A few important crashers must be fixed[2]. See
> http://www.beatniksoftware.com/gimmie/Releases.
>
>    * Next-gen desktop systems are not yet used: Tracker/Beagle for
> searching, Telepathy for IM contacts, mugshot daemon for web service
> access.  I would love to see integration with these in future Gimmie
> releases, but they are not yet a standard part of GNOME.
>
> None of these are too bad, and all could see resolution given the
> incentive of GNOME inclusion.  That said, it's an ambitious goal to
> have something like Gimmie included in the next desktop release, but I
> think well worth it.
>
> Hoping for some inspired, civil debate...
>
> Thanks,
> -Alex
>
> [1] From the homepage:
>     * Installed Programs
>     * Connected Devices
>     * CDs and DVDs
>     * Nearby networked computers
>     * Mounted network shares
>     * Printers
>     * System Preferences
>     * Administration Tools
>     * Bookmarked Folders
>     * Office Documents
>     * Tomboy Notes
>     * Audio Files
>     * Movies
>     * Downloaded Files (Firefox, Epiphany)
>     * Saved Email Attachments (Thunderbird)
>     * Instant Messaging Buddies (Gaim, Pidgin)
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>


-- 
Cheers,
Kevin Kubasik
http://kubasik.net/blog