Do the actually not like their users? [LWN.net]

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 23, 2008 19:11 UTC (Wed) by jorism (subscriber, #21807)
In reply to: Do the actually not like their users? by dskoll
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor encounters the Hardy Heron

Thanks a lot for the magical firefox incantation! If I use the standard file browser to pick
the application "gv" in /usr/bin, I have to wait about 50 seconds until the contents of
/usr/bin is displayed (!!!). I always thought that this bug would be noticed by many people
and thus get fixed soon, so I never bothered reporting it. I now realize that I have been
waiting for a fix for more than two years already... and in the mean time, I even got used to
this strange behaviour. But your trick reduces the waiting time from 50s to about 0s...! 

I wonder what the standard firefox file browser is doing with the list of files that takes so
long...anyway, thanks a lot for this workaround!

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Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 23, 2008 20:26 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

I always thought that this bug would be noticed by many people and thus get fixed soon, so I never bothered reporting it.

In the spirit of civic-mindedness, I opened bug 430532 with mozilla.org.

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 23, 2008 23:51 UTC (Wed) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

While I agree that the GTK+ file browser could be faster... if Firefox bothered to integrate
with the GNOME platform at all then instead of picking 'gv' from a /usr/bin directory
containing (on my system) 3740 files (a pathological condition if ever I saw one) then you'd
just pick it from a dropdown of other applications capable of opening image files.

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 0:41 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

instead of picking 'gv' from a /usr/bin directory containing [...] you'd just pick it from a dropdown of other applications capable of opening image files.

Ye gods, no! That means that Firefox would totally ignore software it doesn't know about or recognize. It means that if you're not part of the GNOME Universe, you may as well not exist, which is the most objectionable aspect of GNOME anyway!

It would also do nothing to solve situations that really need arbitrary files, like "File : Open"

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 8:45 UTC (Thu) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

Nothing prevents there from being a way to add arbitrary programs to the list. This user
interface has already been designed, fer-christsake, it's just up to mozilla.com to use it.
Now you should both be happy; you who want to pick some random image viewing program that
doesn't fit in with the rest of the desktop out of a directory of 3500 other files; and the
ordinary user who just wants to view an image!

http://imagebin.ca/view/KGirIbR1.html for a screenshot...

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 13:43 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

This user interface has already been designed, fer-christsake, it's just up to mozilla.com to use it.

But that would introduce a dependency on GNOME rather than just GTK. And that's completely unacceptable to those of us who do not use GNOME.

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 13:48 UTC (Thu) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

No no no it absolutely would not create a dependency on GNOME. And people who don't understand
that it wouldn't should quite frankly shut the hell up instead of spreading more FUD.

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 15:09 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

OK, sorry, I didn't realize the "helper program..." dialog was part of base GTK.  I still
dislike the interface, but for personal reasons rather than because it's part of GNOME.

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 25, 2008 5:00 UTC (Fri) by vapier (subscriber, #15768) [Link]

"spreading FUD" generally implies purposefully doing so.  correcting people who are simply
mistaken does not deserve a "shut the hell up".

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 10:44 UTC (Thu) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link]

And those of us who don't use GNOME are left out in the cold?

Do the actually not like their users?

Posted Apr 24, 2008 11:00 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

Just use Epiphany.

I really don't understand why anyone would use Firefox with GNOME. I particularly can't
understand it why someone, after making that choice, would then complain about FireFox's lack
of system integration...