Mail from ILUG-BOM list (Non-Digest Mode) _______________________________________________ Ha i just came through this article . Found it quite interesting well what do u folks think abut it At Linuxtoday EDITOR'S NOTE: CONNED BY THE GNOMES? Let's discuss a major press conference where a group of industry heavyweights--among them Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM--vow to cooperate on an industry-standard graphical interface, positioned as a powerful tool to battle the monopolistic Microsoft. The result? The Common Desktop Environment, or CDE. OK, so CDE didn't change the world, and it barely changed anything in the UNIX world. For those too young to remember, CDE was an attempt by an industry consortium to create a common desktop environment across UNIX versions. It was based on Motif, and in theory it was to combine elements from several proprietary UNIX/X interfaces like OpenLook and the Motif Window Manager. But CDE development took forever as the participants in the industry group got bogged down in the details and a key version of Motif was delayed, and in general it looked like an interface designed by committee--which it was. CDE didn't magically make UNIX workstations easier to use, and many in the UNIX community fought an attempt to impose a commercial and sometimes awkward "solution" on users who very happy using the X Window System or OpenLook. And when Linux became the most popular UN*X on the planet, there was no move by anyone initially to make sure that Linux users would have access--commercial or otherwise--to CDE. I can't help but think of GNOME when I reflect upon the formation of an industry group--including Sun, H-P, and IBM--that is attempting to standardize Linux users on a single interface based on GNOME and technologies from Eazel. (See http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-08-14-012-06-PS-DT-SW for more information.) Maybe it's unfair of me to bring up CDE in a discussion of the GNOME Foundation; after all, Linux is not UNIX and the computing world is not the same as it was 10 or so years ago. But I'm one of those guys who loves the fact that there are multiple interfaces available out there for Linux users, I know darn well that it's easy enough to code applications that work optimally under both GNOME and KDE, and I admire the purity of endeavors like GNOME and KDE when they're the work of dedicated volunteers who do it for the sheer love of Linux and coding. In short, I'm a huge believer in an open meritocracy that encourages bottom-up development instead of forcing top-down "standards" Like CDE. I'm also not against the commercialization of Linux, but I want it to be in an open and honest fashion: I really believe that if you release a decent product at a decent price you'll be OK, and I dislike corporate shennanigans based on hidden agendas. To me, the GNOME Foundation is really nothing more than an attempt by large vendors to impose their agendas on the Linux community and stifle both innovation and community involvement. For Sun, this is nothing more than an attempt to push StarOffice on the Linux community by tying it to a single desktop standard; it's also a rather blatant effort to crush K Office before it's released, and that saddens me a great deal, because K Office has the potential to be a killer application rising solely from the Linux community. (Let's be honest: according to Sun, most StarOffice users are on the Windows platform. Sun is trying to replicate the Windows environment on Linux. Boo.) For Red Hat, this is a way to direct development of the desktop to fit Red Hat's needs--and as we have given Red Hat's rather cavalier attitude toward KDE in the past, don't be surprised if it becomes more and more difficult for users to install and run KDE. For Eazel and Helix Code, this is an attempt to control the de facto Linux interface and make money on service agreements. For the Free Software Foundation, this is a sell-out: the way the GNOME Foundation proposes to impose "standards" on the Linux community goes directly against what Richard Stallman has been preaching for years, and his silence on the creation of the GNOME Foundation is very disappointing. (Yes, we have asked RMS for comment, and he has not responded.) And for Linux users, this is a bad deal. Period. --Kevin Reichard Managing Editor, LinuxPlanet mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Well folks its Been 3 months since this article and on 23 rd KDE 2.0 Final Released is out and to be honest it rocks better than the latest Gnome version . Check it at <http://dot.kde.org/972331966/> Its worth a Download Trust me . _______________________________________________ Next Meet on 12th Nov 2000 at HBCSE Website: http://www.ilug-bom.org.in/ Linuxers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ilug-bom.org.in/mailman/listinfo/linuxers CHAT: irc.ilug-bom.org.in
