Re: [gnome-flashback] Future of Gnome Flashback

[Erick Brunzell <lbsolost yahoo com>]

Hi Jonathan,

I'd first remind everyone that I'm not a developer, only an end 
user/tester, and my recent experience is limited to the Ubuntu family.

My first concern is that someone will read this, cherry-pick the list, 
and declare "flashback" dead before any official decision is made.

At the Ubuntu level we first need to clarify that since Ubuntu and 
Edubuntu Precise are supported until April 2017, and Trusty until April 
2019, that Precise and Trusty flashback will continue to be supported 
throughout the lifespan of those two releases.

On 04/28/2014 01:41 PM, Jonathan Carter wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Mate has steadily been making its way into Debian and Ubuntu:
> http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/01/mate-desktop-ubuntu-1404
> https://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/mate-desktop

Just tried Mate in Ubuntu Utopic which is now installable (and bootable) 
simply by installing 'mate-session-manager'. The footprint is certainly 
light enough - 64.2 MB, but also pulls in 'caja' and I suspect that 
Edubuntu (which offers flashback as an option during installation) would 
prefer to use whatever file manager is default in Ubuntu whether that be 
nautilus, nemo, or whatever Ubuntu chooses in the future. I still happen 
to prefer nautilus.

I should note that the Mate session in Utopic is buggy ATM but that's to 
be expected this early in a dev cycle. I did not parse packages to see 
if I was missing any recommends, etc.

> Originally there was a lot of doubt whether that would ever happen, and
> I think that it negates the need for Flashback. Also, the upstream Gnome
> software (like Nautilus, Gnome Control Center, etc) are diverging faster
> and faster and either doesn't fit in or doesn't work well with Flashback
> anymore. Not that it's a big surprise, it was going to come at some
> point. But I think it's time to rather have a new, minimilistic Mate
> session available for some of the usecases that Flashback was good for
> and lay Flashback to rest.

Since flashback in Ubuntu now uses 'unity-settings-daemon' and 
'unity-control-center' (at least in some regards) does that make things 
simpler or more complex? I'm admittedly more than a bit confused in that 
regard :^/

> Personally I never put in the amount of energy in to this that I
> originally hoped to, and I think it might be better to put it to rest
> than to drag it out much further.
>
> Any thoughts? Or in particular? Any good reasons to keep Flashback on
> life support?

I personally don't think it should even be considered until Mate changes 
to GTK+3, presumably in version 1.10, and even then we should approach 
such a change with great caution - almost certainly waiting until Mate 
has their full DE working well in Ubuntu at which point Edubuntu may 
want to consider the change.

A bit off-topic here but if I'd had my druthers, which seldom happens, 
I'd rather see a flashback w/mutter session as a more easily 
configurable alternative to GNOME's new classic session ;^)

Lance