On 04-Mar-10, at 1:47 PM, Biju Chacko wrote: [snip]
I disagree. 5-10 years ago, I had a pretty good idea of all the moving parts behind my desktop. When something broke (which was often) a bit of deduction would point me at the solution. Nowadays, there are a whole bunch of things working under the covers to produce the "just works" effect. There are too many to keep in my head and keeping track of all the possible permutations of problems is downright impossible.
I agree with this. Ever since DCOP/DBUS became the backbone of the deskop infrastructure, the number of inter-component interactions has blossomed geometrically, and the documentation for the interfaces is basically non-existent across the board. It is becoming impossible for a single person to get their head around all the bits that are working together to provide a given bit of desktop functionality. Coupled with the upheaval going on in graphics and audio stacks right now, it's hard for even relatively experienced users to troubleshoot regressions unless they closely follow development lists and release changelogs for each major component of the software stack.
-Taj.
