Are today's online services consistent with GNOME's mission? [LWN.net]

Are today's online services consistent with GNOME's mission?

Posted Jul 26, 2007 19:57 UTC (Thu) by hp (subscriber, #5220)
In reply to: Are today's online services consistent with GNOME's mission? by vmole
Parent article: An "online desktop" for GNOME?

Oh, I see what was confusing. When I said "online.gnome.org is the only required part" I was saying that the service provided by it is the only required part (for Online Desktop mode) - you need an "online desktop service" that e.g. stores what other services you are using. It's a "bootstrap" service.

However, the requirement is not for online.gnome.org specifically, just the server app that will be running there or another app that speaks the same protocol.

Also, you aren't required to use Online Desktop mode at all, so then you don't need any server, you can stick to Classic Desktop.

The point is that to make Online Desktop go you need the basic server app that stores your settings and stuff, but you don't have to use e.g. web mail or a web photo app, you can choose a la carte among those kind of services.

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Are today's online services consistent with GNOME's mission?

Posted Jul 26, 2007 20:17 UTC (Thu) by vmole (subscriber, #111) [Link]

Thanks for clarifying - that is exactly the answer I hoped for.

And to clarify my point: it's not that I don't trust GNOME to run a server, it's that I don't trust *anyone* to provide a service that I rely on for as long as I might want to use it. Sure, my "server" is a virtual server provided by some other company, but all the data on it is backed up locally, and I could move it all in a couple of (painful) days. I'm completely mystified by people who trust huge amounts of work to Flickr, or Livejournal, or whatever.