Re: Integrate VMware and Gnome

[Regis Duchesne <hpreg vmware com>]

Dennis,

> I should not say this: but you want the gnome developers to share there
> hard work (source code), and give you technical help, so your closed
> source product will....?
> 
> Perhaps I do not understand.
Not at all. Sorry if I was unclear. Let me clarify this:

Basically, all Gnome developers have done a wonderful work to lead the 
foundations of an open source usable user desktop.

VMware has put the same amount of detail and work in its own software, 
but our code is not open source (yet) for reasons I will not discuss
here.

The goal of my email is: how to install a product on top of gnome?

If there is an installation problem with open source usually, you can
cheat and fix the product instead of Gnome.

>From my experience, it appears that when the Gnome team doesn't
control of the installed product (because it is not open source), the
product is harder to install on top of Gnome, not because the quality
of the product is lower, but because Gnome is not ready (yet) for
3rd-party product installation.

As more and more companies will want to integrate their product and
Gnome, so that users feel at home when they use their products, I
think it is time to think about the problems I raised in my original
email. Some solutions probably exist, but they are not documented
enough. Some solution don't exist, and perhaps it is time to implement 
them.

In short: today it is trivial to install a product on top of the
Windows desktop (create a group in the startup menu, make sure to
install icons on all user desktops...). I just want to make sure that
it is possible and as easy to install a product on top of Gnome.

The more apps are working hand in hand with 
Gnome, the better it is for the Gnome world. The better VMware
installs on different flavor of Linux, the better it is for the VMware 
world. Don't see me as a threat ! Let's cooperate and talk and try to
solve issues instead.

Best regards,
-- 
Regis "HPReg" Duchesne - Member of Technical Staff - VMWare, Inc.
        www              http://www.VMware.com/
       (O o)             I use Linux (1135 KB/s over 10Mb/s ethernet)
--.oOO--(_)--OOo.----------------------------------------------------
If cryptography is outlawed, only outlaws will have cryptography