GNOME size, build systems and pervasiveness

[Thilo Pfennig <tp pfennigsolutions de>]

Hi,

I am asking this on this list because here are also some developers but
its not really a development question:

> From what I have read in the past on Slackwares decision to not provide
GNOME any more t the state of GNOME on OpenBSD (generally
undermaintained) my current conclusion is that as GNOME has grown in the
number of modules and code lines and dependencies it has increasingly
become hard to maintain, especially if distributions do not use a GNOME
build system. This leads to either distribution not providing GNOME
themselves, not using as primary desktop or for poor quality. on OpenBSD
for example every package seems to have a different version (from 2.18.x
to 2.22.x).

So one could blame those distros, but I think that there is a bigger
underlying problem. GNOME has added functionality and dependencies but
has not being able to make the life of distributions easier, yet. This
is also a marketing problem. There is now the GNOME Mobile platform
which is much smaller - and my question is if this will result also
maybe in the GNOME core being more slick? Or should GNOME itself go onto
a reducing diet by simplifying the code base with goals like reducing
the amount of dependencies or modules?

Where is GNOME moving in relation of size and maintainability? Is there
a chance to get things simplified? I think with simplification like
Epiphany once did when coming from Galeon. Is it possible to build
something like the GNOME Mobile Desktop also as a usable small
alternative to the larger traditional GNOME? If so I would think that
this would be a great chance for GNOME to regain some ground on
distributions that already had given up on GNOME?

In the past I have seen some efforts to reduce power consumption, RAM
usage, CPU usage, etc.. But I was thinking if maybe the underlying
problem is more and more modules and functionality? Funnily many
applications that are most often used like Firefox,Thunderbird or
OpenOffice.org do not even require you to use GNOME.  As I already said
my insight in the code base is limitted, but maybe somebody can clear
this up, also for the records Do we have such a problem or do we not?
And if so what is happening in the GNOME world to target the problem?

Regards and thanks in advance,
Thilo

-- 
Thilo Pfennig - PfennigSolutions IT-Beratung- Wiki-Systeme
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