Dealing with GNOME: Slackware vs. Debian
 

I just read this article and couldn't help thinking about that famous ChangeLog entry back in 2005, if I remember correctly, when GNOME was dropped.

http://www.muktware.com/4087/debian-...op-environment

Well, it's not exactly dropped here, but reading this article two weeks after the inauguration of the new Slackware [XFCE] package section, one can say that you can sense how the winds are turning.

I really can't understand the movement towards "one UI to rule them all (PC, tablet, phone)." Fedora, Ubuntu and Windows 8 all seem to be rushing down that path.

DNA
AKA mrascii

No surprise there, the Gnome developers have made it seem like they're trying to kill the project ever since Gnome 3.

I do not care much if gnome looses or not users. I think that this in any way is positive. All good things come from an basic alternative movement. I mean, all what today seems not useful can turn into a good thing tomorrow, by some simple modification. This is how new stuff comes out. Although not every time its successful.

I'm taking gnome3 as an development bed, which can lead to something new one day, this does not mean it will happen.

But remember also bad things has the good side in them.

Tablets are the bright shiny new pebble in the stream. Companies are convincing themselves that everything has to look like that pebble.

This reminds me of something one of my supervisors once said: That the hardest lesson she had to learn as she rose through the ranks was that "vice presidents make mistakes too."

I think that users, even casual users, are quite willing to accept that different devices can warrant different interfaces--when the iPhone was introduced, the different interface did not keep persons from using it, nor did it send them to their computer suppliers demanding their desktops look like iJunk.

This too shall pass.

I do not know but an example of unsuccessful innovation for me is a 3d tv. I would never buy a TV and put the glasses to watch it in 3d when I come home back from work :) .

One thing is the attempt to innovate. Another is throwing away mature and sensible products with no regards for their users because you think that reinventing everything is kewl.

GNOME is becoming a beast much bigger than it should be. When I read this in Slashdot I also thought about the previous comments here in LQ mentioning more and more GNOME dependency (or "integration") on components that should be system level components. And at the same time, related it to this piece: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/08...s-for-gnome-os

On a side note, it seems that after Nautilus losing a couple of existing features, Mint forked Nautilus, and Ubuntu is considering alternate file managers. That, and the fact we now have, Cinnamon, MATE, Unity, Fuduntu's upcoming gnome fork, massive numbers of frustrated Gnomers, the guy responsible for GTK3 saying that Gnome stares into the abyss, etc...

I mean, how many signs does the Gnome team need before they actually get that something's *really* gone wrong?

I am happy that Slackware moved away from Gnome. For those people that like Gnome on Slackware there is Gnome Slackbuild. GSB is an excellent version of Gnome for Slackware. I am *really* liking XFCE 4.10 on Slackware-current. :)

PV's decision to dump GNOME a few years back is paying off.

DNA
AKA mrascii

Xfce is the worst DE around; fast, stable, functional. Pretty lame if you ask me :-)