Re: More traditional GNOME behavior [Was: Get nautilus OFF OF MY SYSTEM!!!]

[Josh rigler <Jrigler colorado edu>]

OK, OK, I deserve this (see chastisement below).  Chalk it up to
"approaching deadline" frustrations.  At the time I didn't think I was
being that inflammatory, but judging from yours, and comments from
others, I can see why somebody might consider killing my thread.   It
was an honest, if not very tactful request for advice...it was not
intended to offend anybody.  I guess I should avoid using ALL CAPS AND
EXCLAMATION POINTS!!! in the subject line in the future ;^). 

The bulk of my frustration however stemmed from the fact/opinion that,
as much of the GNOME development effort gets further along (including
base GNOME and derivatives like Sawfish), it seems more and more
difficult to find adequate documentation.  The "--help" options just
don't cut it most of the time.

Now I do realize that the documenting efforts so far are much better
than what a typical MS/Macintosh user might expect, but they are not
what I've come to expect from opensource projects in the past.  The
simple issue of my not understanding exactly where GNOME stops and
Sawfish starts should be proof enough of that, because I did make an
effort to find such documentation on my system, and failed!  This is
exacerbated when the particular problem I'm trying to solve involves
getting the proper program to display the help pages (since so many of
GNOME's documentation is in html, not more traditional man, info, or
HOWTO pages).

So...thank you all for your help, despite my lack of tact.  I will
remember to walk away from my terminal, and count to 10 when I feel I've
run up against an insurmountable obstacle in the future.  Then I'll
return to politely list my queries and grievances to this group.

-EJR



> > Feedback is very much appreciated.
> 
> OK, you asked for it...
> 
> Your first mail should have looked like your second, which was much more
> reasoned and approachable.  Coming into a list and spraying bile around
> randomly doesn't help us help you at all.  It made me hover over the
> "kill-thread" key for that long instant rather than immediately seeing if I
> could help.  If a setting looks like it should be doing what you want, but
> isn't, then approach it as a bug you've encountered or something
> misconfigured, not as an indictment of the desktop effort as a whole.  Yes,
> this is a stable release, but that doesn't mean there are zero bugs... If
> you find something new wrong, everyone wants to know so they can either fix
> it or help you get around it.  However, it's much more difficult to work
> around a reactive, panicky, accusatory personality, so just chill out
> before you send the mail.
> 
> Bret