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Nope. I'm still going to go at them. The problem is simple: They used the open-source style goodwill generated by the old thing called GNOME, as it existed wi
by jrm4 4y ago
Nope. I'm still going to go at them.
The problem is simple:
They used the open-source style goodwill generated by the old thing called GNOME, as it existed with Linux, to bootstrap their current popularity, and this is to me, dishonest.
They used a different style and direction. Had they changed the name and/or been clear and upfront about the fact that "this new my-way-or-the-highway thing isn't the Gnome you're used to," then I could defend them.
Call it something new and let MATE have the old name.
But they're not interested in doing or even acknowledging that. Let the mud slinging continue.
- p_l 4y agoHonestly, they had jumped the shark back in GNOME 2 era, when the giant rewrite started being used as excuse to not bring back functionality from 1.x series. My Canary in the coal mine was, IIRC, discussion about presenting certain printer options to end user around 2.2 to 2.4 switch, and some options getting discarded from GUI and into regedit-style tinkering, because GNOME team considered them superfluous. From what I recall, the options were ones that I would occasionally use on Windows (and not just I, but also people who wouldn't be considered techies).
- cbarrick 4y agoMy canary was similar: the removal of the screensaver settings.
- deafpolygon 4y agoIn hindsight, it was impulsive of me - but I left Linux as a whole because of what GNOME did. They broke everything, and disrupted my way of doing things. I /could/ have switched DE or WM, but out of frustration, I switched to macOS (Mac OSX at the time) and didn't look back for over a decade. I've only recently returned a few months ago and found KDE to be sufficient and stable enough for my uses (despite the few bugs I keep running into, but nothing breaking my usability too much).
- truemoose 4y agoI would understand the frustration I hear from some users if this were a paid product...but it isn't. The GNOME project is a massive undertaking and completely free. It's written by volunteers, sponsored developers, and commercial developers who derive their revenue from elsewhere. They own the trademark, so of course they're going to use it. The bottom line is that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people happily use GNOME every day (yes, I'm currently one of them). I did _not_ care for legacy GNOME, and back then I chose something else (usually dwm and xmonad). I really don't see what this fuss is about. There is a vast selection of alternative desktop environments and window managers to choose from. Get over it.
- jmnicolas 4y agoThere are countless open source projects that don't charge a dime and don't have the "Gnome attitude". There's such a thing as too opinionated (and it's coming from someone that likes opinionated).
- QUrprUd1nCeicw 4y agoThen maybe you should use one of those projects instead of GNOME? What's the problem here?
- chris_wot 4y agoThere are plenty of OSS projects that aren’t DEs.
- QUrprUd1nCeicw 4y agoThen maybe some of those project maintainers should start a DE, and see first-hand how it's really difficult and requires making a lot of tough decisions that don't apply to other projects?
- chris_wot 4y ago
- kaba0 4y agoThen why is it continues to be the most popular desktop environment? Maybe they do in fact do something well.
- xorcist 4y agoBecause it is the default desktop for at least the three biggest Linux distributions. Why is it the default? Because GNOME was GPL when KDE depended on the non-free Qt, a long time ago. That is no longer relevant but it was the basis for it being blessed as default. I too use GNOME, not because I particularly like it, but because Linux lets me be productive right out of the box with a minimum of fuss and therefore I want to stay close to default. But I dread every major update where I have google some obscure configuration options just to leave my productivity alone.
- jrm4 4y agoSee my earlier point. Momentum. They used to do something well and they're riding the momentum, deceptively, and they happen to be doing it during a time where less-techy folk and business are beginning to more see the value.
- quanticle 4y agoBy that logic, Windows is the best operating system. After all, there are millions of PCs out there running Windows, and the vast majority of those people don't switch.
- shrimp_emoji 4y agoYep. In fact, less developers are using GTK (and migrating their projects to Qt[0]), and less users are using GNOME, over time due to its self-imposed limitations. KDE usage, in what metrics I've seen, is somewhere at parity with GNOME for DE market share and growing while GNOME is declining, which is telling given that KDE is not the default DE in major distros. Synthetic "popularity by default" vs. authentic popularity at work. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTK#Criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTK#Criticism