(Red Hat does not make over a billion dollars a year. The billion dollars was profits, not revenue. We're still a fairly small company operating on tight margins)
I agree that the "clumsy bag of parts" model is not a good one. That's why we changed it for GNOME3, in that we're trying to build and ship an integrated, tested OS instead of a bunch of tarballs. On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 3:03 PM, Alexander GS <[email protected]>wrote: > It's 2014 and not 1999. > > That clumsy bag of parts is the reason why the Linux desktop failed. > We're in a brave new Linux world where Red Hat now makes over a billion > dollars a year, powers the New York Stock Exchange and Google has two > Linux products Chrome OS and Android. Requirements have changed and we > have Wayland and systemd now as guiding examples of the way forward. > Linux projects that fail to consolidate their efforts and collaborate in > an organized way are now obstacles to progress slowing everyone down. > > GNOME desperately needs a new better way of doing things or they risk > becoming irrelevant in the technology industry and community. > > > On Wed, 2014-02-05 at 14:36 -0500, Jasper St. Pierre wrote: > > Traditionally, GNOME shipped itself as a bag of parts that > > distributors would rearrange into whatever they wanted, and we were > > happy with this. You'd take a dash of gnome-panel, mix it with > > metacity or sawfish or i3wm, and then slap on some nautilus or > > gnome-commander. > > > > That's not how we can build a well-integrated, compelling OS. Mixing > > and matching components means that it's hard to test, and hard to > > define: all GNOME 2 was just some tarballs and some code. > > > > > > Projects like Cinnamon and MATE are happy to use our code (it's free > > software, after all), along with our infrastructure for building their > > own OS, so they don't have to re-translate the same strings and keep > > track of the same bugs, but those teams are focusing on building their > > own OS, not GNOME. > > > > The GNOME we're trying to build has its own vision, and it's trying to > > become its own well-defined product: The number-one free software > > operating system. > > > > > > > > On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Alexander GS <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > On Tue, 2014-02-04 at 13:09 +0000, Allan Day wrote: > > > > > Hi Alex, > > > > > > Thanks for reaching out with your ideas. I'm afraid that > > you're > > > catching us at a bad time - we are really close to UI freeze > > and a lot > > > of us are working flat out on that. I personally don't have > > much time > > > to spare on mailing lists right now. :) > > > > > > Can you explain what the GNOME 2 sub-project would actually > > look like? > > > It's hard to respond without knowing details about how it > > would > > > actually work. I understand that you are proposing to > > utilise some > > > GNOME 3 modules, but how would it differ? Would it have a > > 3.x > > > gnome-control-center? Would it have a shell? If not, which > > pieces > > > would you use instead? Would you expect the GNOME project to > > make > > > regular GNOME 2 releases alongside GNOME ones? Would we work > > to ensure > > > we produce quality GNOME 2 releases as well as GNOME 3 > > releases? How > > > would we market these two experiences? What would we > > recommend to > > > distributions? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Allan > > > > > > After some deep reflection and considerations I finally got > > the root of > > my frustration with the GNOME project. In reality I don't > > have anything > > against GNOME 3. It's that GNOME has been slow to adapt to > > the changes > > in the GNOME ecosystem. The central problem is the idea of > > having a > > single dedicated desktop product. > > > > That's why I propose the GNOME Meta-Desktop. Posted below is > > the Problem > > statement of this proposal as a preview. I've posted the full > > proposal > > to the wiki.gnome.org so you can comment on points directly. > > > > ----------------------- > > > > GNOME Meta-Desktop > > > > Problem > > > > For some time now, Linux has been evolving beyond the idea of > > the > > "single" desktop platform. This is not Windows where each > > platform is > > bolted down to a single desktop interface design. > > Unfortunately projects > > like GNOME have been slow to adapt. GNOME's focus on a single > > dedicated > > desktop interface design has caused the Linux desktop space to > > fragment > > causing divisions and frictions between the various > > communities. This > > has also deprived commercial Linux platforms the ability to > > shape > > desktops that fit strict requirements demanded by their target > > markets. > > > > Currently and unofficially GNOME is evolving into a > > meta-desktop with > > GNOME Shell, Cinnamon and MATE the resultant outputs of this > > evolution. > > This brings along with it several problems such as > > fragmentation and > > redundancies. The GNOME meta-desktop needs to be standardized, > > needs > > community collaboration and needs GNOME in-house desktop > > products to > > drive it forward. > > > > ------------------------ > > > > https://wiki.gnome.org/AlexGS/GnomeMetaDesktop > > > > Thank you for your time and attention. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > desktop-devel-list mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Jasper > > > > > _______________________________________________ > desktop-devel-list mailing list > [email protected] > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list > -- Jasper
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