On Thu, 2006-07-13 at 16:50 +0100, Iain * wrote: > On 7/12/06, Darren Kenny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Just think about what happens when a user logs into a desktop that has > > Python > > and C# based applets included with C based applets: > > - The panel starts > > - It starts C/Bonobo based applets - the smallest of which already > > consumes > > approx 40Mb of memory. > > - It starts Python applets - each of these takes up approx 70Mb of memory > > - > > and very little of this is shared > > - It starts a C# based applet - and this pulls in Mono, which I'm sure > > isn't > > that small, but I guess at least it does share memory better than > > Python, > > but there is still quite a lot of additional memory pulled in. > > Then...umm, don't run them?
A lot of us have been using this argument a lot lately, and I don't think it's a productive way to develop software. Sure, it's wonderful that we have choice, and we should never take that choice away from our users. That does not mean that we should force (or actively encourage) our users to choose not to run our software. Realize, Iain, that your reply was not just to a user concerned about his desktop. Darren has clearly shown in his posts that he's concerned about how this will pan out for Sun's offerings of Gnome. So you're not just telling a user he's free to run what applications he wants. You're encouraging one of our distributors to ship something other than stock Gnome. This has been a brewing problem for many years now, and we need it to stop. We need one Gnome. Many moons ago, the idea was that Gnome didn't need its own window manager. From a purely technical standpoint, that's true, especially now that we have initiatives like the EWMH. To the user, though, it's another story altogether. Having a blessed window manager means that we can put window management configuration in sensible places in the control center. It means we can document the desktop's behavior and functionality. It means we can actually talk to people about our desktop without a bunch of if's and but's. When Gnome is divided, we can't build interfaces that work the way users think; we have to expose application boundaries that aren't relevant to users. We can't market Gnome effectively, because everything we might want to say is false in at least one of our distributions. We can't document Gnome correctly, because we don't know what's actually on our users' screens. ISDs can't target a divided Gnome like they can target Mac or Windows. Having a solid and stable developer platform is wonderful, but much of what makes a great user experience comes from outside the platform. If we don't unite Gnome, we will lose it entirely. -- Shaun _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
