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Many people do desire the feature to change themes. Do they? A big reason to choose open source in the first place is the flexibility in customization that it

by ugh 16y ago

Many people do desire the feature to change themes. Do they? A big reason to choose open source in the first place is the flexibility in customization that it brings. It's the opposite of the "Apple mindset" that there's one good way and that's the Steve way. I think you are mischaracterizing Apple’s mindset. It’s not about finding the one good way, it’s about finding a good way and the assumption that most people are not interested in tweaking that. I do not think that all open source projects have to slavishly follow some sort of central ideology of maximum customization. There are enough alternatives to Gnome that it would be no problem at all for Gnome to be different. For those who really need it crazy customizability is certainly available.

wladimir 16y ago
Yes, the Apple mindset assumes that there is a good way and people are not interested in tweaking that. You can agree or disagree with that. I do agree that a sane set of defaults is good. It should be usable without customization. But for one, I am interested in tweaking things. From the operating system to how things look. That's why I use open source. Isn't that the original hacker spirit?
- ugh 16y ago
  It is but various Open Source projects do want to cater to many more people than just hackers. There are several open source desktop environments, they don’t all have to have hackers as their target group, have they? Just looking at Gnome’s website I would argue that maybe Gnome just isn’t for you and that there is nothing wrong with that.
  - wladimir 16y ago
    You can tell that by just looking at Gnome's website? I've been using Gnome for >10 years now. I've never had any big complaints about it (well except for gedit not having a "replace in selection" feature, but there's a plugin for that). Gnome has excellent customization and theming facilities through GTK themes. I also think the Gnome defaults are pretty good. I've also used KDE and like it but tend to choose Gnome as I'm used to it. Apple, however, I wouldn't buy because it locks me in too much for my taste. I don't like cages, even cosy golden ones :)

by ugh 16y ago

wladimir 16y ago

Yes, the Apple mindset assumes that there is a good way and people are not interested in tweaking that. You can agree or disagree with that. I do agree that a sane set of defaults is good. It should be usable without customization. But for one, I am interested in tweaking things. From the operating system to how things look. That's why I use open source. Isn't that the original hacker spirit?

ugh 16y ago
It is but various Open Source projects do want to cater to many more people than just hackers. There are several open source desktop environments, they don’t all have to have hackers as their target group, have they? Just looking at Gnome’s website I would argue that maybe Gnome just isn’t for you and that there is nothing wrong with that.
- wladimir 16y ago
  You can tell that by just looking at Gnome's website? I've been using Gnome for >10 years now. I've never had any big complaints about it (well except for gedit not having a "replace in selection" feature, but there's a plugin for that). Gnome has excellent customization and theming facilities through GTK themes. I also think the Gnome defaults are pretty good. I've also used KDE and like it but tend to choose Gnome as I'm used to it. Apple, however, I wouldn't buy because it locks me in too much for my taste. I don't like cages, even cosy golden ones :)