gpaint and extra apps rant

[Tomas Junnonen <majix sci fi>]

Against my better judgment I'm going to add my 2 cents to the
discussion.

I thought the point of the extra app packages was to highlight
good GNOME software created outside of the GNOME CVS, making
finding good and mature software easier for new users. Whatever
you might feel about including programs with similar features
(IMHO choice is always good, but they should bring something
new to the table), I strongly feel that gpaint is not suited
be included in the GNOME 1.4 extra app package.

Why? I downloaded and compiled gpaint, and I found it horribly
unfinished. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get the fill tool
working (maybe I'm stupid) and within two minutes of program 
usage it managed to lock up my machine (it's  reproducable, I
tried it twice, try File->New File  [incidentally, the New File
dialog's cancel button doesn't work] and enter Width:100
Height:100 Zoom:100), I had to pull the plug on the machine 
to get it working. The whole application has a very unpolished
and work-in-progress feel to it.

There are 672 applications in the GNOME applist index, many
more deserving than gpaint to be included. Again, I think the
extra app list should aim to pick out the best of these
applications. One day (but realistically not anytime soon) gpaint
might be a good program, but right now I think it is in no
position to be part of the cream of the crop of GNOME 
applications. It has no web page to speak off, no translations
(very important for GNOME IMHO), it is only about 2 months into
development and has <700 downloads. Try again in 5 months.

As for other extra apps, since I haven't seen anyone mention
Galeon (http://galeon.sourceforge.net) yet I would like to
nominate it for the list. It is a very slick and polished web
browser based on Mozilla. I'm new to this list so forgive me if
this program has been discussed before.

Just my humble opinion, this is not meant as an attack on anyone
or anything,

Tomas Junnonen