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If I may ask, what is it that drives you to volunteer to work on a project that has so much negativity surrounding it these days? I've found GNOME 3 to be a ve

If I may ask, what is it that drives you to volunteer to work on a project that has so much negativity surrounding it these days? I've found GNOME 3 to be a very interesting case study. Here we have what was once a very successful project that has gone through a very rough patch lately. Many existing users aren't happy with what it has become, and although changes are happening, they only seem to be provoking more and more negativity. I can't recall any GNOME 3-related news where the sentiment was positive. At best, it's a sense of "well, things aren't getting any worse!" And while I don't have any numbers, I gather that GNOME 3 isn't really attracting all that many new users, either. The future doesn't exactly look bright. Based on the comments here regarding this decision, for example, it clearly isn't what the user community wants. There seems to be much more excitement and positivity around projects like MATE and Cinnamon, which basically go against what the GNOME team is doing. I don't mean to be insulting, but I have a very difficult time understanding why anyone would still want to be publicly associated with the GNOME project these days.

snogglethorpe 14y ago
Er, on the other hand, many people actually like gnome 3 (myself included), but it's typically the people who don't like something that are the most noticeable, because they complain a lot. I.e. "I saw lots of complaints on HN" is not a particularly good measure of anything...
- Nursie 14y ago
  But there are a lot of complaints in a lot of different places. I'm sure complainers are probably over-represented in public fora, but not to the extent you seem to think.
- PommeDeTerre 14y ago
  I don't doubt that some people like GNOME 3. I'm just not convinced that, given all of the feedback that I've seen, that this is a very large group of people. I would not be at all surprised if the number of people who like GNOME 3 is much smaller than the number of people who have, silently or otherwise, switched to Xfce, KDE, or some other environment. Like Nursie mentioned in another comment, the negative sentiment toward GNOME 3 isn't just present here. It arises essentially wherever GNOME 3 is discussed. Having followed many open source projects for many years, I've never seen anywhere near this level of outright hatred on such a scale. Yes, disagreement is common, but when it comes to GNOME 3 it's far beyond that.
bkor 14y ago
I have followed GNOME since almost the start. Helped out since 2005. I help out out because it is fun. I know a very large group of people and everything I do is appreciated. User community for me is Mageia, where I help out as well. The things I do over there are also very much appreciated. On various sites there is a lot of negativity. E.g. on Phoronix some person ("BOSS" or similar nick) often says GNOME developers should due. I rather focus on making GNOME better and having fun than deal with the death threats and so on, bad reporting ("Debian defaults to XFCE"), etc. Being public about helping out with GNOME: Why not? I don't mind explaining why things are done the way they are. Often the assumptions are just that, assumptions. I also go to FOSDEM, totally different atmosphere than displayed on forums.
mseepgood 14y ago
> Based on the comments here regarding this decision, for example, it clearly isn't what the user community wants. I like Gnome 3 very much, but I am not constantly writing blog postings and comments about how much I like it.

snogglethorpe 14y ago

Er, on the other hand, many people actually like gnome 3 (myself included), but it's typically the people who don't like something that are the most noticeable, because they complain a lot. I.e. "I saw lots of complaints on HN" is not a particularly good measure of anything...

Nursie 14y ago
But there are a lot of complaints in a lot of different places. I'm sure complainers are probably over-represented in public fora, but not to the extent you seem to think.
PommeDeTerre 14y ago
I don't doubt that some people like GNOME 3. I'm just not convinced that, given all of the feedback that I've seen, that this is a very large group of people. I would not be at all surprised if the number of people who like GNOME 3 is much smaller than the number of people who have, silently or otherwise, switched to Xfce, KDE, or some other environment. Like Nursie mentioned in another comment, the negative sentiment toward GNOME 3 isn't just present here. It arises essentially wherever GNOME 3 is discussed. Having followed many open source projects for many years, I've never seen anywhere near this level of outright hatred on such a scale. Yes, disagreement is common, but when it comes to GNOME 3 it's far beyond that.

bkor 14y ago

I have followed GNOME since almost the start. Helped out since 2005. I help out out because it is fun. I know a very large group of people and everything I do is appreciated. User community for me is Mageia, where I help out as well. The things I do over there are also very much appreciated. On various sites there is a lot of negativity. E.g. on Phoronix some person ("BOSS" or similar nick) often says GNOME developers should due. I rather focus on making GNOME better and having fun than deal with the death threats and so on, bad reporting ("Debian defaults to XFCE"), etc. Being public about helping out with GNOME: Why not? I don't mind explaining why things are done the way they are. Often the assumptions are just that, assumptions. I also go to FOSDEM, totally different atmosphere than displayed on forums.

mseepgood 14y ago

> Based on the comments here regarding this decision, for example, it clearly isn't what the user community wants. I like Gnome 3 very much, but I am not constantly writing blog postings and comments about how much I like it.