Re: GNOME now

[Brian Cameron <brian cameron oracle com>]

Allan:

On 11/15/12 06:46 AM, Allan Day wrote:
> Brian Cameron<brian cameron oracle com>  wrote:
> > But I think the GNOME community has been
> > conscious that platforms like Solaris were being left behind as
> > decisions were being made.
>
> That really depends on how you define the needs of the "advanced
> UNIX-hacker category". GNOME 3 may have differences from traditional
> desktop environments of the past (it also has a lot of similarities
> too), but it is definitely intended to be an effective environment for
> developers or system administrators.
>
> (I'm speaking from a UX design point of view here, obviously.)

I do agree that the GNOME 3 designers have kept the advanced UNIX
hacker in mind.  I did not mean to imply otherwise.  I would instead
say that this type of user is of a lesser priority than they were in
the past.  Is this not a fair statement?

IMHO, the archetypal UNIX hacker is the person in a Matrix-like
multiscreen virtual-reality pod using touch-screen hand gestures to
access all sorts of remote programs around the globe.  But, isn't the
plan for GNOME to lose many multi-screen and remote-X features for the
time being in favor of better support for the average user's needs?

As you say, GNOME should be an effective environment for hackers that
do not need features GNOME will not support.  I would say most hackers
find the ability to access remote machines in a multi-screen
environment more important than the ability to use a touch-screen,
though.  Is there a plan for features that hackers need to be
addressed?  Perhaps by the time GNOME 3 is scheduled to be included
with Enterprise Linux distros in addition to FOSS hobbyist distros?

If GNOME wanted to seriously keep its hacker user-base, I would think it
would be smarter to maintain the Fallback mode until such features have
suitable replacements.  Also, I'd think that if the GNOME community
were able to provide a better support story for GNOME fallback mode, a
lot of FUD about the need for GNOME to continue forking would evaporate.
But hasn't the release team already decided that the need to make GNOME
more slim and maintainable trumps backwards compatibility and such
typical hacker needs?

Brian