[Foss-cafe] Novell's new desktop

[Timothy R. Butler]

Hi Tink,
> All seems to be functioning and I think it's time to start a disucssion. ;-)

  Yes, I hope it is. :-)

> I guess you all have read the article online about the new Novell 
> desktop. Gnome and KDE integrated or merged into one desktop.
> 
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1553087,00.asp
> 
> I don't know how many Gnome people we already have managed to 
> persuade to subscribe but it would be interesting to hear opinions 
> about the pro and cons of such an integrated desktop.

  I think it makes a lot of sense, but I fear it won't work out very
well. I would especially love to see some work on integrating gnome-vfs
with kio_slaves. KDE's kio_slaves seem much more dependable than Gnome's
vfs, unfortunately. For instance, gedit can't do any remote access at
the moment at all.

  What I hope *doesn't* happen is that this doesn't just created a
really bloated uberdesktop. Ximian Desktop 2 is a work of art, but part
of that beauty is in simplicity. If you end up with a desktop that is
simply everything KDE has plus everything XD2 has, it won't be very
good.

  I tend to think Novell would be wise to pick one desktop and
concentrate on it. Then try to modify the libraries of the other desktop
so that applications written for it integrate as well as possible. 

  For example, let's say Novell picks XD2 as its default desktop (makes
sense since Evolution will probably be the default e-mail client, and
while SuSE is pro-KDE they also have invested in GNOME, whereas Ximian
is purely a GNOME company). If they do that, build a REALLY good GNOME
desktop. Integrate everything into GNOME... get rid of YaST's control
panel and tie everything together in gnomecc, like Red Hat has done and
XD2 does. Now, modify KDE's file dialogs, themes, etc., so they look the
same as the default desktop. Don't mix applications between the two
desktops -- that's not the point -- rather, by doing this, if someone
needs an application only available for KDE, it won't stick out as
something "different."

  This can be reversed if Novell goes with KDE instead of XD2.

  Despite the jeers it has gotten, this is essentially what Red Hat has
been trying to do with BlueCurve. Fedora/RHEL do not push KDE at all (it
isn't even installed by default), but if you need a KDE application, it
will fit into the environment you are using. That, to me, is the key.
Not supporting every desktop but making sure the *applications* of every
desktop can be used in a way that isn't messy looking.

  -Tim

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
==================== <tbutler at uninet.info> ====================
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