"Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it." [LWN.net]

"Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it."

Posted Sep 10, 2012 16:11 UTC (Mon) by anselm (subscriber, #2796)
In reply to: "Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it." by rdale
Parent article: Look and feel lawsuits, the second time around

If Gnome folds it won't make XFCE or KDE more successful […] KDE won't suddenly have more users and contributors because Gnome has folded.

I don't think that makes actual sense. If GNOME goes away and Linux users are looking to use (or contribute to) a desktop environment, what else are they going to pick? OS X?

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"Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it."

Posted Sep 10, 2012 17:51 UTC (Mon) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]

> If GNOME goes away and Linux users are looking to use (or contribute to) a desktop environment, what else are they going to pick? OS X?

Yes. Many will migrate to OSX. Many will migrate to W7. Many will migrate to W8. It's not as if their desktop will suddently stop working; but eventually they will upgrade, and without an upgrade, a migration can consider equally OSX, W7, and W8 as alternatives to KDE, LXDE, &c.

ESPECIALLY because the perception of GNOME as an evolutionary dead-end will taint the other Linux DEs, while OSX and W7/8 won't have that taint.

"Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it."

Posted Sep 10, 2012 19:11 UTC (Mon) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link]

I'd guess many people are using GNOME because they want to use Linux, not using Linux because they want to use GNOME – so it would make more sense to move to another Linux-based environment rather than a completely different one. After all, many programs run just as well on a KDE or LXDE desktop as they will on a GNOME desktop.

It's not as if the other platforms didn't have their evolutionary dead ends, as users of PowerPC Macs – or, arguably, the classic Windows desktop once Windows 9 comes around – will be able to attest. If GNOME does go away, with KDE at least you get to keep most of the rest of your system.

"Indeed, we enthusiastically buy their hardware and port our systems to it."

Posted Sep 10, 2012 22:17 UTC (Mon) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]

> I'd guess many people are using GNOME because they want to use Linux, not using Linux because they want to use GNOME

This is not true since the dawn of Ubuntu. It's a real, viable platform with its perks and quirks in the eyes of end users everywhere.

> so it would make more sense to move to another Linux-based environment rather than a completely different one. After all, many programs run just as well on a KDE or LXDE desktop as they will on a GNOME desktop.

(this is technically true, but Qt/KDE programs often look displaced in a GNOME/LXDE desktop and vice-versa)

> It's not as if the other platforms didn't have their evolutionary dead ends, as users of PowerPC Macs – or, arguably, the classic Windows desktop once Windows 9 comes around – will be able to attest.

Windows 9? PowerPC Macs had their platforms continued thru the judicious (and well-done) use of emulation in form of Rosetta.

> If GNOME does go away, with KDE at least you get to keep most of the rest of your system.

LibreOffice runs on Windows and Macs too. So do Firefox, Chrome and VLC. Actually, many GNOME/GTK (and KDE/Qt) programs run on Windows and Macs. Lots of files are in the cloud. There is little incentive to stay in one single platform these days but "The Platform Just Works, Exactly The Way The User Likes, It And Keeps Working Better And Better Each Upgrade." That is why I am personally stuck to KDE up to this day.