How come GNOME is hard to install.

[Yoni Elhanani <biggo netvision net il>]

Hi.

Yesterday I Installed KDE on my friend's machine, (No flames, please)
And it was the easiest thing I have ever installed in my life.

I'd like to see gnome that easy to install,
since it's target are users who have no idea how to compile and install.
I'll try to suggest now how to solve that problem.

I compare GNOME to KDE, not to say that KDE is better, or that I like it
more, 
but to outline some of its (IMHO) strengthes for easy installation.
dont send me "if you like KDE so much then dont use GNOME".

1st trouble: bad/old RPMs
-------------------------
I'm not an expert on RPMs at all.
but i think that RPMs should be made whenever possible,
and that they're not so hard to do.
So you need a spec file, big deal, somebody just programmed an entire
UI,
so a spec file (whatever it may be) should not be the thing that stops
him
from getting this UI to be installed on many computers.
I know that its development, but try to get RPMs in time.

2nd trouble: many libraries
---------------------------
In order to start even the compilation of GNOME,
one must have a huge amount of libraries,
such as: GTK+, GLib, imlib, (requires libpng/gif/jpeg), ORBit, esound,
libXml, others.
In KDE all I had to compile is Qt. (No flames... please!)

Another side of this problem, 
is that you need the newest version of development libraries.
That may  require you to recompile EVERYTHING so it will work with the
newest lib.

I believe this is the biggest problem.
I dont know how to solve either of these problems,
but in order to have an easy installation we have to.

3rd trouble: scattered packages
-------------------------------
In KDE, one would install kdebase and get:
kwm,kpanel,kdm,kconfig,kfm, and maybe other small utils.

However in GNOME, to get these functionalities, one must install:
e (or any other gnome-compliat wm), gnome-core, gdm, control-center, mc.

thats pretty much, aint it?
i'd suggest that we just put control-center and gmc into gnome-core when
it is possible.
maybe even gdm (its not a big compilation, it shouldnt be too much).
That would make the user able to install just one gnome package (except
gnome-libs)
in order to get a working gnome enviroment.

The little applets, however, can be seperated into gnome-applets.
since that (imho) they are not essential to gnome's enviroment.
(maybe include only clock, mini-commander and pager applets since they
are very useful)

4th trouble: using gnome
------------------------
This is the least trouble, and it can be solved easily.
but I think I should mention it.
When I installed KDE i had various scripts to help me run it.
such as kdm_on, usekde, startkde.
with gnome, it is very confusing to start gnome.
there was even a thread on "how to start it".
some suggested just gnome-session, some suggested "wm & gnome-session",
some suggested just to run the programs: "mouse-properties &
sound-properties , etc.

that is very confusing.
i cannot even run gdm when i try to as root:
"gdm_config_parse: Can't find the gdm user (gdm). Aborting!"
I do believe that this is just misconfiguration or non-configuration
problem,
but newbies would be baffled by such a thing.
(luckily for me I like the "login:" console prompt).

such installation scripts would make it alot easier to install gnome.

Conclustion
-----------
If we want gnome to be as mainstream as KDE is now, we must make it more
installable.
this is not a "compatition" againt KDE nor a "lets be like KDE"
suggestions.
It's a "lets make installation easier" suggestion.
I assure you that if gnome was as easy to install as KDE,
it would be as popular as KDE. (atleast when release version comes out).

I know, you may say "developer's version",
but if we want to getbug reports as quick as we can,
we must allow many users to use it,
thus shorting the beta phase, and improving the quality by eliminating
bugs.

BTW,
a RedHat installation (or any distribution installation that comes with
gnome),
is not a solution for all these problems.
GNOME can be installed not only when linux is installed,
but should be downloaded and installed anytime or anywhere.

Happy presidents/refund day (tomorrow),
Yoni.

-- 

There are no big words, just little people.