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

[Fred A. Miller]

Eduardo Sánchez wrote:
> I must run to work, but I would like to point out this:
> 
> On Sunday 03 May 2009 16.08.15 Timothy Butler wrote:
> 
>> 	KDE needs two things, I think, to be what it really should be
>> (because it has always been technologically sound): stable and
>> simple.
>>
>> 	Stable in this sense: In 10 years, KDE has broken binary
>> compatibility 3 times. GNOME and Mac OS have broken it once, and both
>> with sufficient ease of running older library side-by-side that few
>> people noticed it. Windows has not fully broken it ever. KDE ought to
>> commit to insuring ABI integrity for 10 years -- even if it means
>> eventually having multiple versions of the libraries, so long as one
>> configuration tool can manage all of them. With Qt now LGPL'ed,
>> businesses might consider it -- rather than their traditional
>> preference for GNOME -- but they'll want assurance that KDE is
>> serious about business first.
> 
> It's perfectly doable, and I don't think it's much of KDE's business. 
> Right now I can run KDE3 and KDE4 apps simultaneously because Slackware 
> provides a KDE3 compatibility layer (with selected libraries, and so 

So do all other distros. ;)

> on). This comes at the cost that right now I am not able to compile KDE3 
> stuff on this machine (only KDE4 stuff). But the point is that binary 
> compatibility *can* be done in a matter of something as simple as 
> installing packages, and even an undermanned, underpowered and simple 
> distro can do that in a very simple way. Why the Fedoras and Ubuntus of 
> the world can't, then?
> 
>> 	Simple in this sense: even if you do provide massive configurability
>> to the user, it should be hidden in advanced dialog boxes. The basic
>> configuration boxes should be simple enough that a novice can feel
>> confident changing basic settings without reading a manual. 
> 
> I think systemsettings does the job quite nicely.

This is all nonsense. It SHOULD be available, and it can easily be done
as "advanced settings" or some other descriptor. There's NO valid excuse
for not supplying GUI advanced config. tools, IMHO.

Fred

-- 
Gun-toting Americans are clearly more self-sufficient than the sissy
Europeans. This is great news for everyone except Barney Frank, who's
always secretly wondered what it would be like to be taken by a Somali
pirate.
--Ann Coulter