Re: the same page

[Matt Brown <mbrown autoventshade com>]

Support for pentium desktops is not the only reason to improve 
performance/footprint.


I can think of a couple more right off.  for example:
  

   1. Reducing performance/footprint of Gnome can even be an advantage 
on huge fast
       servers with lots of memory... if the server is supporting tons 
of X users running the
       Gnome Desktop simultaneously (I,m speaking of my own situation 
here)   

   2. Non-desktop users of Gnome.  PDAs and the like will always lag 
the desktop in  
       memory and processing power.  Let's not leave them out.

   3. Some areas of Gnome have issues even on decent hardware.
       Complaints about performance/footprint posted on Gnotices or 
somewhere are usually
       dismissed as useless flames by  some BlackWindowIceMakerBox fan 
or something, but
       they really aren't trolls.  Rude and misguided they may be, but 
they are actually Gnome
       users and usually Gnome supporters, believers in the Gnome 
cause.  If they didn't love
       Gnome, then they wouldn't feel strongly enough to get all mad 
and passionate and stuff.
       If they were resigned to using KDE, they just wouldn't care.
       So in other words we should improve areas where there is 
negative customer feedback.


   4. Some people have this idea that there is no way to have a 
beautiful featurefull user
       environment and be crazyunix fast too.I don't necessarily agree.
       Power+beauty+speed, the best of all worlds, its not an 
impossibility just a hard
       engineering problem waiting to be solved.  What gets me excited 
is that Gnome,
       with the talent level and energy of the developers involved, 
probably has the best chance of
       anything out there of achieving this nirvana, and , I think they 
would get there easily
       when/if they actually turn their focus in that direction. 

/So all I'm saying is, while I believe it is important to support older 
desktops, even if all of the
pentium desktops spontaneously dissapeared tommorow, there would still 
be some compelling
reasons to improve performance/footprint./

The dream of having the best of all worlds is kinda what this whole 
Linux thing is all about.
And It's this dream that is driving new users this way every day.  Gnome 
holds promise that
one day they will not be driven back away dissapointed.

Ok... waxing philosophic now, must be the Bass ale, better shut up now 
before I sound too corny :}


>Regarding support for older machines:

>While I'm sympathetic to this, and in fact use a P2 for some development
>and a slow p3 for other stuff (not to mention a 5-year-old SPARC), I
>think we should bear in mind two things; one, the Gnome2 we are
>preparing now will take time to "hit the streets" as it were, so we
>should be planning for the user population of mid-2002 and not the
>population of this instant; some of those old p1s will doubtless get
>replaced in the interim.  

>Also, as this is a new "major rev" release, it's not unusual for the
>system requirements to jump up discontinuously at 2.0.  Once 2.0 is out
>we want to avoid forcing the 2.0 user base to keep upgrading, but I
>think a major release is an acceptable time for a "step function"
>increase in platform requirements.   I think the need not to degrade
>performance (footprint, etc.) will become more important when moving
>from 2.0 to 2.0.1, 2.2, etc.

>-Bill


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