On Fri, Jun 11, 2004 at 10:19:11AM +0200, Alfons Adriaensen wrote: > On Thu, Jun 10, 2004 at 07:24:59PM +0200, Kjetil Svalastog Matheussen wrote: > > > > Tim Hockin: > > > > > > I know Linux people love to claim how choice is our strength, but I think > > > it's bunk. Linux needs a single GUI environment that has a lot of deep > > > flexibility > > > > Yes! I completely agree with this. > > What exactly do you mean by Linux "needing" something ? > > And how are you going to impose that single GUI environment ? > Will you take me to court when I write a new window manager. or > a widget that doesn't have your 'imprimatur' ? > > If you want your freedom to program limited, please goto > Windoze or MAC. But please do no impose your limitations on > others.
My take on this, I hope I can bring this discussion to a friendlier level: Linux would 'need' an unified gui (look and feel, not so much implementation) for better usability. Talking about choice: some people would like to have the choice of using any (Linux) app with one and the same look and feel (well, except games and maybe some other special cases). While choice is in fact a reason for me to use Linux, there's the problem that choice is mostly limited to incomplete/patchwork solutions (but in the proprietary software world there are similiar and some other problems). Freedom and individuality are great, but the power that comes from bundling efforts (marching in one direction) ... I understand the hobby/freetime/volunteer aspect, it's not different for me, only as a designer I need to have programmers cooperation/support. I understand that programmers like to have free choice of language, libraries and toolkits (even though it's painful to see reinvention of the wheel all the time). There could be an abstraction layer that allows unified gui on the one side, and free choice of language and interface style on the other (at least to some degree). But there must always be some room for new ideas / experiments. --- Thorsten Wilms
