Re: Gnome 3 Extensions/Themes Website?

[William Jon McCann <william jon mccann gmail com>]

Hi,

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 8:10 AM, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:
> We've always argued that if it is anything, GNOME is a UX. There might
> be a case for letting people tweak things here and there, but I really
> think that every GNOME install should have the same core look and feel.
> Otherwise, what is it that we are doing in the first place?

I agree with Allan. I am really concerned about this effort to
encourage and sanction themes and extensions.

In addition to the things Allan mentioned in the preceding mails, I
think there are a few other issues to consider.

1. We rely on enthusiasts for testing
2. We rely on enthusiasts for building our brand

I think it is clearly detrimental to both to have more fragmentation
and reshaping, recoloring, and replacing the user experience -
especially in this critically important group of early adopters.

The issue is not whether extensions may be useful. The issue is
whether they will be harmful to our larger goals.

If we aren't careful they will be. I agree with Allan that, if we
insist on going through with this idea, we at least have a few places
in the design that remain unchanged. I think that themes should not be
included, that the top bar should not be changed, and that the
overview should not be fundamentally altered.

As I understand it, Owen's main argument for this website is to have
more control over things that may cause bugs in bugzilla. Themes don't
and shouldn't be part of this at all. Another thing is that the shell
should just put up a "You break it - you buy it" warning when
installing an extension. And bug reports should include a "tainted by
extension" flag.

Jon