Re: Remove "About Me" for 3.0?

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

Hey,

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net> wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-04-14 at 16:41 +0200, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
>>
>> hmm, if it doesn't work on non-Linux systems, I guess we need to have
>> something for non-Linux users. I agree about gnome-about-me code being
>> dreadful, so what should we do? What would be needed for the new
>> accounts dialog to work on non-Linux systems?
>>
> People to actually port it. This is, IMO, not any different from the
> stand we've taken in the past. It's not like it's impossible to make it
> work on non-Linux systems, it's the fact that no one has make the step.

Actually, I don't think we go far enough either.  To the user GNOME
defines the user experience.  To the developer GNOME defines how an
application is designed and written.  The term we typically use for
something that satisfies both is an Operating System.  Historically,
we haven't done a very good job at providing a good platform for
developers to create GNOME apps.  Part of this is that we've painted
ourselves into a small corner by saying that we are just a set of
related modules and a set of UI guidelines.  That was accurate and
adequate back in 2002 - but it isn't anymore.

Linux is clearly part of the GNOME OS just like it is in the
Moblin/Meego, Android, and WebOS operating systems.  So is D-Bus,
pulseaudio, etc.  You can't write a great application for just Linux,
nor for GNU/Linux.  But if we set our minds to it we can do it in
GNOME.

There will still be external efforts to port GNOME to BSD, Solaris, or
Hurd but we should really acknowledge that GNOME is written for Linux.

> I'd remove gnome-about-me, propose the new accounts dialogue as a
> module, and be done with it.

Sounds fine to me.  At some point we may want to add a "user profile"
type thing but about-me certainly isn't it.  And it probably would be
done as part of the new Contacts management stuff anyway.

Jon