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The GNOME devs are actively closing the software as much as possible; their software philosophy is probably as closed as you can get while being formally open s

The GNOME devs are actively closing the software as much as possible; their software philosophy is probably as closed as you can get while being formally open source. There are many interesting informations around to get a picture of how they think; this article has interesting concepts: https://igurublog.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/gnome-et-al-rotting-in-threes/ https://igurublog.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/gnome-et-al-rotti... and this is the most relevant part: I think one of the most important cases against applets (as they are currently defined in GNOME) is that they are extremely detrimental to the Identity of the product or platform. [...] Let’s say that we are trying to define either a product or a product platform. I don’t think it is possible to do this without some “brand” coherence. And it is arguably impossible to do this effectively with such an ad-hoc/individually-customized design identity.

userbinator 8y ago
Wow, WTF. I could sort of see that type of thinking from a commercial product marketing manager, but it's puzzling coming from an open-source developer. All that flufftalk of "brand" or "identity" --- whatever happened to just designing products that your users want to use!? It is particularly perplexing since Windows before 8.x was far more customisable and themable, which probably lead to its success.
- barrkel 8y ago
  Windows was not successful due to its customisability or themability. Windows was successful because in the early days it was the best (cheap + capable + commodity hardware) choice, it built an ecosystem of apps, and then it ruthlessly preserved as much backward compatibility as possible to carry the advantage forward. The lesson of backward compatibility is slowly getting lost across the whole industry.
Ballantara 8y ago
When GNOME 3 came out, it felt like they had this vision of a Better way to Do Things and didn't see why all their users wouldn't be excited to change their workflow. How they responded to criticism definitely makes sense given those thoughts about Identity.

userbinator 8y ago

Wow, WTF. I could sort of see that type of thinking from a commercial product marketing manager, but it's puzzling coming from an open-source developer. All that flufftalk of "brand" or "identity" --- whatever happened to just designing products that your users want to use!? It is particularly perplexing since Windows before 8.x was far more customisable and themable, which probably lead to its success.

barrkel 8y ago
Windows was not successful due to its customisability or themability. Windows was successful because in the early days it was the best (cheap + capable + commodity hardware) choice, it built an ecosystem of apps, and then it ruthlessly preserved as much backward compatibility as possible to carry the advantage forward. The lesson of backward compatibility is slowly getting lost across the whole industry.

Ballantara 8y ago

When GNOME 3 came out, it felt like they had this vision of a Better way to Do Things and didn't see why all their users wouldn't be excited to change their workflow. How they responded to criticism definitely makes sense given those thoughts about Identity.