Re: Did GNOME go 1.0 too early?

[Andy Kahn <kahn zk3 dec com>]

On Thu, Mar 04, 1999 at 04:38:12AM +0100, Nils Jeppe wrote:
> Because that way they could release it on Linux World Expo? Ride on the
> wave of media attention that's gonna get them?

i second this opinion and think riding the hype was the primary
goal of this release.


> Me, I just wanna check out Gnome again after finding 0.30 to be a pile of
> poo. Anyway, the installation of the RPMs is annoying - I use SuSE 6.0 and
> I think I am getting a little fed up with the whole package idea but
> nevermind - but it looked nice enough so I figured, let's see how bad
> the RPMs are and grab the source.
> Big mistake.
> I expected some nice, easy compile.. But no.. not only do I need a heap of
> libs, it's also not finding a couple of libs that I do have, and ohwell,
> it's too early in the morning to get frustrated. All I want is a
> ./configure that works. Other people are able to do it, why not Gnome.

ditto here.  i was hoping the installation method would be ironned
out before the 1.0 release, but was very disappointed when i found
out all the files i needed to install for a "complete" GNOME setup:

	GXedit1.22.tar.gz
	ORBit-0.4.0.tar.gz
	audiofile-0.1.6.tar.gz
	control-center-1.0.1.tar.gz
	ee-0.3.8.tar.gz
	enlightenment-0.15.0-19990225.tar.gz
	enlightenment-conf-0.12.tar.gz
	esound-0.2.8.tar.gz
	fnlib-0.4.tar.gz
	freetype-1.1.tar.gz
	gdm-1.0.0.tar.gz
	gedit-0.5.1.tar.gz
	glib-1.2.0.tar.gz
	gnome-admin-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-audio-1.0.0.tar.gz
	gnome-core-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-games-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-libs-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-media-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-network-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-objc-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-pim-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnome-python-1.0.0.tar.gz
	gnome-utils-1.0.1.tar.gz
	gnotepad+-1.0.8.tar.gz
	gnumeric-0.15.tar.gz
	gsl-0.3b.tar.gz
	gtk+-1.2.0.tar.gz
	gtk-engines-0.5.tar.gz
	gtop-1.0.1.tar.gz
	guile-1.3.tar.gz
	imlib-1.9.4.tar.gz
	libghttp-0.99.2.tar.gz
	libgtop-1.0.1.tar.gz
	libxml-1.0.0.tar.gz
	mc-4.5.23.tar.gz
	users-guide-1.0.tar.gz
	xchat-0.9.1.tar.gz
	xscreensaver-3.07.tar.gz


that's 39 separate files.  who on EARTH (especially those non-technical
users) want to go about installing 39 separate files?  (i'm not going
to go into how complicated the installation instructions are from the
"old" getting started guide...)

what's worse, i followed the download link(s) from the press release
itself: http://www.gnome.org/getting-gnome-1.0.shtml

this gave me two more links to choose from: a link for precompiled
Redhat 5.2 RPM's, which brought up a page that simply said,

	"This page isn't yet finished. Please try our older getting
	started guide. "

or another for compiling from source which said:

	This page isn't yet finished - please try our older getting
	started guide for now. 

	      1.Download the tarballs. A listing of FTP site mirrors
		is here.  Once in the top of the GNOME FTP directory
		tree, go into the gnome-1.0/sources directory and
		download all the .tar.gz files. 
	      2.

	Next Section


that's right, an incomplete page!

overall, this 1.0 release looks very much like something done in
Redmond, where you push a product out way before it's actually ready
for public consumption, just so people get the impression that the
next great thing since sliced bread done baking.
--andy