Re: Draining the Swamp: A Technical User's Experience

[Jim Gettys <Jim Gettys compaq com>]

> From: Rui Miguel Silva Seabra <rms 1407 org>
> Date: 05 May 2002 16:24:59 +0100
> To: foundation-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Draining the Swamp: A Technical User's Experience
> -----
> On Fri, 2002-05-03 at 04:04, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> > Thought this would be appropriate here, given that it's not on the straight
> > and narrow of core GNOME development issues. It is, however, crucial to
> > GNOME's success - we can't fix everything ourselves. :-)
>

But some of the problems we *MUST* solve can only be solved by helping
out with and working with other projects...


> In the case of configuring X's HS and VS, you could probably ruin your
> graphics card or you screen if you pushed it a little too far...
>
This used to be a problem, but isn't usually a problem on modern
hardware.

Per my previous mail, the current default behavior of many of
the XFree86 drivers is suboptimal, including attempting to run at
the absolute maximum resolution that the hardware might be able to
support (and some monitors incorrectly identify what resolutions they
can support; this can cause your monitor to turn off).

Some patches here would help alot.


> Default installations, nowadays, figure fairly well what graphics card
> you do have! :) but tuning is a hassle indeed.
>

Right now, things are usually broken enough with defaults that
nearly everyone has to tune.  This is broken!

> "If it is common, it is damaging our ability to gain mindshare."
>
> To finish, I'd like to comment on this... GNU/Linux systems have been
> running  around for far longer that RedHat 6.2, and worse usability
> problems existed in the past. Our mindshare has only increased...
>
> We're getting better by the second, no matter what some doomsayers say.

Yup.  Modelines are usually unneeded now, for example.  XFree86 4
usually has alot less to mess with in the config file than 3.x did.

But we (the community) could do alot better yet.
                                - Jim