Hello!
There's a big difference between having gtk+ themes to look more like windows, and replacing gtk+ functionality with Windows functionality. The argument for having consistent functionality across all platforms is still the winner for me. If people want to theme gtk+ - including the dreaded File Open dialog - to look more like Windows, then great. But arguing to have different functionality on different platforms just because you happen to like the Windows File Open dialog more than gtk's is backwards. If people are so discontent with the gtk+ dialog, then they have 2 options: a) Fix the damned thing, b) Stop using gtk+ and start using native windows widgets. Of course, if you want to develop cross-platform apps, then option b) is out of the question, isn't it?I recall similar arguments about Java swing. They argued that having a consistent UI for one application across all platforms was more important than have an app that acted in a consistent way with apps on any given platform. I think most people would now agree that the latter is more important to most end users than the former, which is why we have the WIMP theme, and Java Swing now looks as close to win32 as it can on windows.
No, that's not right. Every 'normal' windows user will complain if an application don't use the system fileselector today. Sorry, but using the native file selector is the expected behaviour. In fact, every normal windows user often don't know what Linux is and they are normally not interested too. They have some piece of software they must use. And these software should act like ALL other programs on this computer.
For myself I have written a wrapper that maps to the native fileselector under win32 and the native gtk filechooser otherwise. Using the native fileselector is for sure a must if you write commercial/industrial software. Other solutions are not accepted.
Regards, Frank