Re: [gentoo-dev] desktop

[Spider]

begin  quote
On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 16:00:13 +0200
Paul de Vrieze <pauldv@g.o> wrote:

> Gnome's configuration does not include a menu system with all
> installed X applications
>

No, and this is in many cases a -good- thing.  Gnome does not -need- to
provide menu entries for xcalc, xmag, xeyes and a lot of other  X
applications.  To include theese on a default menu would go against
guidelines and common sense.  

This means that for many such applications a good line of reasoning has
to be added so our default "newbie-friendly" desktop doesn't end looking
like L random User 's desktop did in the year 1997 after 1.5 years of
active installation in windows 95. ie, it would be a clear sodomization
of a good interface. 



However, there are some points coming up otherways in the thread that we
have to bring up front.

1) No major redesigns of the DE's.
This is important, we shan't make all icons look like different versions
of larry, replace all Foot's , K's and other such things with a G', make
the default to include Gentoo Tip of the Day, add Gentoo.org links on
every desktop, make all desktops install Evolution and add it as the
default mailhandler everywhere "because its the best" .

2) We need a consensus and smooth integration of tools. This is the more
important part of a Gentoo desktop.  A cdburner shall work for users in
the 'cdrw' group, and preferrably without running a Druid or Wizard.

3) Multimedia. 
  The various DE's partially integrate their own multimedia
applications, but theese all use common backend libraries.

We need somone/s to dump all quicktime library related bugs, and that
takes care of libmad and other background things (lame, flac, libid3 and
so on)  wherea's the various DE's make sure the end user tools work as
desired.

This is a thankless task that has to be done.
(fex, gstreamer + related is part of the gnome herd, whereas ffmpeg,
xine-lib, lame, libogg, libvorbis, libmad and a lot of other background
things that need to work has to be taken care of. )

4) Menu's
  There's a lot of controversy here.  I want the installation of such a
system  to be a consious act and preferrably kept off per default. 
(genmenu is a good example here. very good even.)

5) extra-DE integration.
  This mainly belongs upstream, as DE's move towards common standards
this is something we can lean back and reap the fruits of.


6) intra-DE modifications
  I'm all for the various DE's implementing or removing features, as
long as its maintainable, and sane.  Adding highstrung pipedreams that
can't be made to work properly is not our thing.  Leave this to
Mandrake, SuSE and RedHat. They are good at it.


7) "Vanilla flag"  
  This shouldn't be necessary. Anything thats intrusive enough to
require something like that needs to be thought over -veeery- carefully
and is a bug per design.

adding an option to remove a broken feature is -wrong- and the
implementor of said patch and flag should be made to read "A discipline
for Software Engineering" by Watts S. Humphrey. And follow the rules
described therein.

8) Extra
What needs to be made work though, is a consistent set of graphics to be
made avaiable, and perhaps default.  Fex, the GRUB loader should have a
graphics design similar to the framebuffer background, as well as the
GDM and KDM + elogin themes.  

This sort of branding is not intrusive on the user (framebuffer
background is the most intrusive one, and should and could well be
disabled by default)


9)  Decisions and communications
All theese things need to be properly discussed and in the open. I was
shocked to find out I suddenly got a manager who thought I was to run my
decisions about including applications to the Gnome desktop by them, as
well as the idea of a single uniformed Gentoo desktop is completely
-appalling- to me.   In this regard the ruling cabal (ie, management)
have flunked completely and their actions ,  and  more
importantly, inactions are to be questioned.  This whole process could
have been dealt with far nicer. 


End rant, 
  Spider




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