[Discuss] The next Linux desktop

[Richard Pieri]

On 2/10/2012 12:37 PM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> The main question is "what is right". I used to like KDE, then I got
> used to Gnome 2, and I am getting comfortable with Gnome 3 (and the
> extensions I added). There are certain features that Mac users would
> like to see, and other features that Windows users want. Then there are
> some features that old command-line Unix users want. I think it is
> difficult to come up with a common ground. That is why we always have
> had multiple Windows managers and desktop systems. All have to be able
> to work in a client-server Linux/Unix environment.

I want to work backward through this.

First of all, the OS doesn't matter.  X11 is its own environment.  An X 
server doesn't need an operating system.  The X11 protocol suite was 
designed with "dumb" X terminals in mind.

This leads to a disconnect.  What various OS users want out of their OS 
is orthogonal to what an X-based desktop should deliver: a consistent, 
elegant, functional experience.  It's funny, but TWM did that better for 
me than GNOME ever did.

*WHICH* GNOME 2 were you comfortable with?  Red Hat's version?  Debian's 
Version?  Ubuntu's version?  It seems like a silly question, but really, 
if you put the three side-by-side you can see just how different they 
are despite being the same thing.  This is simply terrible for getting 
non-technical users to accept Linux on the desktop.

-- 
Rich P.