Has everyone gone bloody mad?
Although I know Will's reply to my last post is intended to be funny (rofl, by the way), I want to clarify something.
I can reason why some more hardcore Linux folk get up in arms about a user-intuitive desktop. I don't say user-friendly, because this is relative: to me, a terminal window is user-friendly. To Aunt Tillie, a terminal window is one of the more fearsome things on a computer, no doubt. Intuitive means she can sit there and within a few minutes, figure out how to do what she needs to do. Most folk who are against the user-intuitive desktop lived through seeing Microsoft rise (and lately, fall). They also lived through a group of people known as AOLers destroying some other things they worked together to build, such as usenet, irc, most of the rest of the Internet... They're afraid that if the common man decided Linux is the operating system of choice, Linux will be destroyed, too.
I'm not going to lie: I use GNOME because it is bloody intuitive. It hides all those obnoxious extra options. I don't care about setting the number of pixels I want to pad the scroll bar with, or whether or not I want a resize bar in the corner of the window. I leave that sort of thing to the wonderful graphic artists who make our window themes, because I have no artistic eye whatsoever. There's a time for play, and a time for things to work. When it's time to check the email, I want to check the email and nothing else. OOoooooh, this is a prime example!
Prof. Jacker is trying to get me to use gnus, a news/email client for emacs. I'd like to try it, and I have spent some spare time trying to figure out how to use it. Maybe someday I'll figure it out. Right now, though, I need to check my email. I don't have time to go through and learn how to use a new client right now. So, I open Thunderbird, go through the little assistant wizard thing to put in my email servers, and bam, "[I]'ve got mail!"
But when it's time to configure the server, or do something above and beyond just the everyday tasks that I need available to me right here and right now, I'll have 4 or 5 terminal windows open. The reason for this is that I have taken the time to learn how to do things more quickly and efficiently in my OS. In GNOME, graphically, there is almost nothing that I can't do that I can in the terminal. I choose to use the terminal because it is user-friendly to me, and much faster than trying to find some hidden option in GNOME.
Linus says, "I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do." THIS IS WHY WE HAVE GNOME AND KDE. As long as Linux is Free, it will have the power to be tailored to ANY TYPE OF USER! We have GNOME for the people who don't want to sit there configuring every little detail, who are willing to sacrifice total (graphical) system control for a little efficiency. We have KDE for the power users who want to specify exactly how long it will take for the animation of the window during maximization to take place. And of course, we have the ever-reliable terminal for the times that you need to take 100% control of your system, and your graphical environment has fallen short, as no one can deny that both of them do.
Linus, you're a hero of mine. You challenged the system just when it was first being established. It's taken some time, but you're in a position to totally beat it. You are a brilliant kernel-level hacker, and I wish I had one percent of the deep understanding you have of the inner workings of this magic box upon which I am typing. Don't you see the power in your operating system? Windows is tailored to the idiot user, although power users can exploit some options in the registry to change their experience some. Mac OS is tailored to the graphic designer, although in recent years it's attracting some of the users of your operating system because it is a very productive environment that has also become hackable. Linux ... Linux is whatever you make it.
KDE folk make it a power-user system. Gentoo folk make it a 100% customizable system. GNOME folk hide some configuration to make it a productive system. You work to make it a stable and reliable foundation. RedHat puts money into technical support for the system. Debian makes it a reliable server system. FreeDesktop tries to make it an intuitive system. Mono makes it into a cross-platform system, somewhat compatible with .NET. TransGaming also makes it into a cross-platform system by attempting to emulate DirectX in OpenGL. LUGs all around the world spread the word about this system and provide free support to their communities. We all play our part.
Why the hell would you try and destroy such a beautiful thing by saying "I don't like GNOME, therefore you shouldn't use it?" GNOME isn't about idiot users; it's about productivity and simplicity. Sure, this attracts "idiot users" becuase they don't want to learn about the computer; they just want to get their job done. In a perfect world, everyone who used a computer would have some training on it and a deeper understanding of what is actually going on, but this is very expensive and detrimental to business.
By the way, hero as you may be, it hurt my feelings just a bit to be called an "idiot user" by you.
You say, "I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long
since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. Please, just tell people to use KDE."
I may not be the creater of an operating system and some people's entire methodology for life, but the future of what you've helped to create is very important to me. If we're going to turn personal preference into the one true way of doing things, my only response can be that I don't use KDE, because in striving to be configurable and featureful, it has long since reached the point where it simply is too cluttered to be useful to me; plus, I don't like C++ very much. Please, just tell people to use GNOME.
December 14th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
Very well put; I agree 100%. I use Gnome because it makes things easy and has what I consider to be a nice aesthetic, even though I've no doubt I could master KDE if I wanted to (though IMHO that would be a waste of my time).
But I don't tell people not to use KDE. It's important to respect peoples' choices and their ability to make them - this is what I consider to be one of the principles of Free software - and this doesn't just mean giving people lots of options, but alse giving them the choice not to have to worry about those options.
December 14th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Heh, this has been very fun to read.
Yes, it's great to have KDE around. I used to spend hours tweaking my desktop as well...
December 15th, 2005 at 1:15 pm
You completely missed the point. He's not bitching about some features not being present (he even said that he understands not having enough programming resources). He's mad that the excuse given was "usability" when it's *impossible* to use the PPD features of a printer. Not simply that it's too 'simple'; it's *completely* impossible. Anyone that makes the claim that a feature not being there is 'usability' is bullshitting us. And that's BAD for the Gnome project. I wish people would stop doing that.
December 15th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
You are a very kind person. Your words are those of a bridge builder and someone who truly and deeply understands the freedom which linux brings to the table. You are giving Linus much repect and benefit of the doubt in your reaction.
I, on the other hand, like to be evil. I like to be a total jackass in response to statements made by a total jackass. Linus is dumb. Linus is one dumb SOB. He doesn't get it. He released a toy 14 years ago which grew into an awesome tool for us all, but he doesn't have any vision for bringing to toy the masses. I don't think he ever did. Anyone who sees the freedom which linux gives to us all and turns it into an "us vs. them" scenary is a fool. Linus just proved himself to be one.
Do I really believe these things? No. Linus is a hero of mine to. It always hurts when we see our heros make mistakes. It hurts more realizing that they don't realize they made a mistake. It hurts still more realizing that they may not have the capacity to realize they made a mistake or ever admit it. I throw my hand in the air. Linux is still mine to use. Thank you open source. What has change from Linus's statement? Nothing. Thank you open source. The next versions of gnome will come and go. The next versions of KDE will come and go. Linus cannot stop it. All he (or anyone) can do is make comments. Sometimes people will make bad comments. That is all that has happened. The next releases will come and go and we will have better software regardless.