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Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 2, 2006 22:08 UTC (Mon) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814)In reply to: Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format) by ajross
Parent article: Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
"But I'll be honest, I think Gnome has a cleaner and clearer path to the future."
I like the fact that Gnome makes a new release every 6 months. KDE doesn't have a schedule like that currently, but they are in the middle of switching to Qt4 and that is a huge amount of work. At the same time they are really trying to rethink the desktop - they are working together with usability people and I think a lot of interesting work will come from that.
A lot of the freedesktop.org stuff will be added (like D-Bus). The reason this hasn't been added before is that KDE created its own solutions long before things like D-Bus existed. Now they are making a new stable foundation for the next many years and that makes them able to sync up with freedesktop.org. That is a good thing for both desktop environments.
The latest I read was that KDE4 is certainly not going to be released this year, but they are shooting for sometime 1. half of 2007. I have no doubt the KDE developers will be able to pull off something quite amazing.
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Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 8:11 UTC (Tue) by Janne (guest, #40891) [Link]
"I like the fact that Gnome makes a new release every 6 months."
Yes, it's nice in a way. But it can lead to quite pointless releases. Take the latest release for example. It doesn't really have any compelling new features to me, as an user. An app that displays where disk-space is going? Note-taking app that was already available separately? It kinda seems like that they thought "well, we have to release SOMETHING".
Of course it's nice to get new releases in a steady manner. But what's more important: Steady releases or steady progress? Steady releases does not mean that the system progresses steadily. 2.16 was quite boring as far as "progress" is considered.
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 8:37 UTC (Tue) by micampe (guest, #4384) [Link]
Steady releases does not mean that the system progresses steadily. 2.16 was quite boring as far as "progress" is considered.
It's true, functionally wise 2.16 is boring, but personally appreciate the fact that it feels more and more mature and stable. You feel that even the smallest details are getting looked at and everything is steadily polished.
This is obviously not to say that Gnome is perfect or that it doesn't miss features, but I like this "solid" feeling it gives to me.
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 14:15 UTC (Tue) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link]
Take the latest release for example. It doesn't really have any compelling new features to me, as an user.Well, I think the menu editor -- which has been on holiday for about five years -- is back.
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 18:50 UTC (Tue) by Janne (guest, #40891) [Link]
Well, I'm an Ubuntu-user, and the menueditor has been available in Ubuntu for quite some timealready. So for Ubuntu-users, there wasn't that much of a change
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 16:05 UTC (Tue) by madscientist (subscriber, #16861) [Link]
I dunno--they fixed a bunch of bugs. To me that's worth a release!
Mark Shuttleworth interview (Linux Format)
Posted Oct 3, 2006 18:51 UTC (Tue) by Janne (guest, #40891) [Link]
Bugfixes are worthy of a point-release, not a major release. Well, here's to hoping that next versionwill see some more tangible changes.