Re: [fOX] The Cathedral and the Bazaar

[Max Watson <redline pdq net>]

At 02:58 AM 3/10/98 +0100, Kai Wetzel wrote:

>While I hope that I'll be of some usefulness to harmony
>as soon as my cvs password works correctly I'd like to 
>point out that XClass/fOX _exist_ as a project.  It's
>not correct that "starting even another" toolkit is taking
>place.  The Linux Interface Project (LIP) and XClass/fOX
>are certainly far behind KDE and behind GNOME in terms
>of completeness.  However, the LIP has been started before
>KDE and fOX is AFAIK older then GNOME (not Gtk as such).

I took a hard look at fox/xclass before I heard about GNOME. They had an
excellent head start, way back in the pre gnome-0.8 days. I even wrote an
app in xclass (winzip clone, called LinZip) before I noticed the project
had no momentum at all. Then I set-tripped to GNOME. (I easily ported
linzip to gtk, but then found out mc was to be GNOME's fm, making a zip
util useless :) fOX still has some excellent stuff, and they could catch
up. What they really need is a good spin doctor. This is the same problem,
IMHO, the PenguinPlay (nee LGSDK) Project has. GNOME has got debian
support, RH, the FSF, the gimp :), and a lot of the semi-legendary hackers,
besides the kde/gnome wars on usenet generated a lot of publicity. fOX and
PenguinPlay both are excellent (but big) projects, but they do not have
enough excitement to generate the level of activity needed. Some good PR
can go a long way.


>When the GNOME started I really wondered why people are
>starting GUI/desktop project number 4, 5, or 6.  I
>now I realize that the GNOME project has some unique aims
>and that it's a very interesting and promising project because
>of this.  I must admit that even if a new GUI/desktop project
>_would_ be started now, this might hold true for it, too ...

I agree. GNOME is right for me. I like their goals. But the others are
useful as well. Even FADE, which seems to exist solely out of spite for
GNOME, has a place. (Iterestingly, FADE would probably be the easiest of
the "other" projects to get GNOME to interwork with, since it is based on
wxGTK.) I wish all the projects the best of luck.

M.Watson redline@pdq.net


M.Watson