I disagree

Story: The KDE vs. GNOME Schism In Free SoftwareTotal Replies: 3
Author Content
Grishnakh

Sep 28, 2011
10:43 PM EDT
Martin Gräßlin wrote:When Linus turned first from KDE Plasma to GNOME and later from GNOME Shell to XFCE he was exactly demonstrating the advantages of choice. ... These two events have not shown a failure of GNOME or KDE as the media seemed to suggest, but the opposite: it highlighted the great advantage of choice in the free software ecosystem.


No, what it highlights is that one one Free software project goes off the deep end and ignores the needs of its users, there's alternatives. In the proprietary world, it isn't so easy; if Windows decides to force everyone into a smartphone-like UI in Windows 8, imagine the uproar. Of course, from what I'm reading, it seems that (unlike Gnome developers) MS isn't quite that stupid, and is preserving the traditional UI for all the people who are used to it. In fact, it seems like proprietary companies are far more conservative and less likely to so obviously disrupt their users than the FOSS developers, at least the ones who work on DEs.

Martin Gräßlin wrote:If a user switches from GNOME Shell to KDE Plasma, it is not a lost user to GNOME. It is a user won for free software and not lost to the proprietary competition.


Wrong. Martin's obviously not heard of something called "fragmentation", and doesn't remember how it nearly destroyed UNIX in the 80s and early 90s. Furthermore, a FOSS project without any users isn't going to go anywhere. Anyone still use twm? I thought not. Has it advanced any? Nope, it hasn't changed a bit for probably 15 years. The 3 twm fans out there probably are happy with that, but most software does need to grow and evolve, even if only a little bit to keep up with changes in the rest of the system. Is it relevant? Not at all. If all the users abandon Gnome, then it's going to go the way of twm.

Martin Gräßlin wrote:Why are release notes of GNOME not published on the KDE news site, isn’t it a news worthy event if our collaborators have a release?


Why should they be? Should Gnome publish release notes for LXDE, XFDE, Enlightenment, FXWM, Unity, and every other DE out there? There's a lot of DEs besides just KDE and Gnome. If people want to read about other DEs, let them go to those projects' websites. A short list of alternatives and links to their websites is fine, but keeping up with all the news from them all is too much.

Koriel

Sep 29, 2011
12:06 AM EDT
@Grish

Agreed why on earth should one DE publish the release notes of another DE and vice versa their are so many DE's and WM's out there the situation would get crazy.

Or as I suspect they are being arrogant again, that since they are the 2 biggest DE's no one else should get a look in.
Fettoosh

Sep 29, 2011
12:37 PM EDT
Quoting:If a user switches from GNOME Shell to KDE Plasma, it is not a lost user to GNOME. It is a user won for free software and not lost to the proprietary competition.


Wow, sounds like a plan to get filthy rich by moving funds from one checking account to my other one. ROTFLMAO.

[Edited:]

Sorry, my bad, I shouldn't have made fun of the idea, I think it has some insight & merit. Like BF (Benjamin Franklin) used to say, "A Penny saved is a Penny earned/gained," " which originated here..





ankitvish

Oct 03, 2011
6:04 AM EDT
Sound great

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