Re: What is GNOME office?

[Dick Porter <dick+gnome acm org>]

On Wed, Nov 15, 2000 at 08:08:52AM -0600, Mike Kestner wrote:
> Dick Porter wrote:
>  
> > Surely "what is GNOME Office" should be "all GNOME applications that do
> > officey things". If we have more than one candidate for a particular role,
> > then include them all. Choice is good (particularly when they all interoperate)!
> 
> Unfortunately, this thought process doesn't work well in the current
> GNOME corporate expansion.  Corporations that are considering investment
> into GNOME will want to know which application is the "official"
> component of GO, when two or more exist.  Companies need to assure that
> their payroll dollars are being invested in the most productive manner
> possible, and this means a single sanctioned suite in most cases. 

In the component world, the application itself is pretty blurred.

> 
> While it is arguable that duplication of effort is even more harmful in
> a resource constrained environment, reasons like education, choice, and
> simple enjoyment can make it acceptable to have duplication when money
> isn't involved.  The survival of alternatives will be based on whether
> individual hackers determine there is personal payback in extending and
> supporting a non-sanctioned app.

I would argue that duplication of effort between GNOME and KDE has given
the world two high-quality desktops, instead of one mediocre one.

> 
> Mike

- Dick