On Thu, 14 May 2009, Tim Apple wrote:
> Hey everyone....i'm new here. I am learning ruby and shoes these days. I am
> a constant tinkerer and was thinking of doing an ubuntu spin and try to make
It might be useful to tell us what kind of tinkering (a)you usually
do, (b)appeals to you (that you'd like to explore), to help us see
which aspects of the problem domain you'll be exploring.
> as many tools and apps as I can with shoes....(keep in mind this could take
> me years to accomplish..not trying to get it done tomorrow) I was looking
> for opinions from other linux/shoes users on whether Xfce or Gnome would be
Not done enough with Linux of late to really count myself in, but, I find
myself wondering how those choices will affect your results. I thought
there was a working linux distro of shoes already, so how does the choice of
the layers above X affect this? There is a goal to keep Shoes as cross-
platform as possible.
> a more adaptable enviroment for shoes, or any other suggestion. I thought
> E17 could be cool too. Well a tad off topic so sorry if I wasted your time.
I'd say that from the other responses, it's kind of tricky to say what's
best, but there is a case for seeing what you can squeeze out of the
"default" Ubuntu, or at least what most people seem to have. That way
you'll benefit the most users by your work. On the other hand you may
wish to concentrate on a somewhat unsupported area, provided you are
ready to explore this pretty much alone, but benefit those who are left
out of the mainstream. This is the sort of mindset that brings able-bodied
people in to work on accessibility, for example.
I'm thinking along the lines of the social side of software development:
for it to be a community activity you need enough people around you to
help, or compensating amounts of willpower, stamina, ability and whatever
to see you through the bugs whose existence seems positively malicious.
And I've probably left you feeling like you're in one of those adventure
stories, where you can't get a useful answer out of the oracle until you
know the exact question to ask, and when you know that, the answer is
(usually) obvious. I'm hoping, that like in such stories, the provider
of unhelpful answers doesn't get punched! :-) I should add that I'm no
oracle (and then back away...quickly!).
>
> ps...will be trying to come up with a name for this monster also.
>
> Tim
>
Hugh
