[CS-FSLUG] Linux Today - Is desktop Linux too fragmented to succeed? A friend tells it like it is!!

[Timothy Butler]

>>
>>    I would note again that GNOME is very configurable, many of the
>> options are just hidden from the GUI. (Which, make sense: you and I
>> don't mind mucking around a bit; but the average user doesn't care  
>> if he
>> or she can set emacs to check the latest stock information and pop  
>> up a
>> notification that the toaster has finished toasting.)
>
> Well now, how do you know what the flakes in academia want?! I'm near
> Cornell & Ithaca College, ya know! ;)

	I don't know, I'm just "in tune" I suppose.

>>    Here's a wild one: what if we dumped both legacy DEs? I think it
>> wouldn't be too bad of idea to build an entirely new DE on top of
>> GNUStep and Objective C. GNUStep's relation to Cocoa on Mac OS X  
>> means
>> that many developers already use to developing for the iPhone or  
>> Mac OS
>> X could program on Linux without a major learning curve.
>
> Not a bad idea, as long as it doesn't the look nor feel of Gnome. :)


	Better yet, do something like this, but also make a version of Qt  
that supported the new system, so all the KDE stuff would come over  
"for free."

>
>>    I think GNUStep/NeXTSTEP/Cocoa also are closer to the Haiku/BeOS
>> architecture. Which brings me to another wild point: perhaps if  
>> everyone
>> refocused on developing Haiku that would be a better return on
>> investment. It seems like with some fit and finish it could be far  
>> more
>> interesting than GNOME or KDE.
>
> I can't share your excitement....sorry.

	We'll see. I always was intrigued by BeOS's speed and clean  
interface. If it had the right feature set... imagine a netbook that  
felt fast because the OS was so streamlined!

	(One thing I like about Haiku is that it basically offers something  
"innovative" if only because few know about the original BeOS -- it's  
a different interface, a different philosophy, it isn't copying  
Windows or Mac OS X, but it isn't just weird. Unlike, say, the Amiga  
OS clones, it strikes me that Haiku could easily be a practical OS  
someday sooner rather than later.)
>>
>>    Don't lose hope. Actually, I'm feeling better about the Linux
>> desktop than I did -- as I said a few weeks ago, the last time I
>> installed Ubuntu on a computer at church, it was the first time I  
>> ever
>> had someone excited to get to try this beautiful new OS, rather than
>> questioning what this strange thing I was using was.
>
> Reread what I said, and it has NOTHING to do with Ubuntu., etc. ;)


	Oops, sorry, Fred.  I thought that was an odd sentiment from you.

>
>>    It's more the bumps they'd run into if they kept using it, my
>> original list, that would scare them off. I think Linux is ready  
>> enough
>> for use under a system administrator in an office environment,  
>> though.
>
> Of course, it has been for sometime as I've been doing it for  
> sometime.
> ;) SuSE, of course.

	I took note because I had never gotten a positive reaction from Linux  
before. In fact, the same user had used the old Mandrake 9/KDE 3  
system this new one replaced and always complained. When Ubuntu popped  
up with its nice little tribal-themed startup sound, attractive  
wallpaper and tasteful window manager effects...

	Quite encouraging.

	-Tim

---
Timothy R. Butler | "Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Editor, OFB.biz   | Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
tbutler at ofb.biz   | And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
timothybutler.us  | I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing."
                                            -- Edward FitzGerald