What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views) [LWN.net]

What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

Posted May 21, 2005 23:48 UTC (Sat) by mmarq (guest, #2332)
In reply to: What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views) by b7j0c
Parent article: What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

eh?!... the idea have nothing to do with commercial interests by itself. It has to do with the possibility of having the same "look & feel" across the board, whatever the application, no matter the disparate widgets & other toolkits involved, there may be a form of bring them together, with a *small & efficient" commom metatoolkit sharing the same theme engine,.. perhaps an IDL.

" Ebay and Google are this generation's CA and Adobe. That is why anything that matters from this point forward is going to work in a web browser. "

Even more so, because look & feel its not only fundamental for the desktop but for the development of applications also. There is a *killer feature* involved in having the possibility of consistent look & feel & behavor, no matter if your application is Network(includes the web) centered or not, and with only minor changes to the wrapping methods of the different languages that make a cross platform, be them C/C++, C#, D, Java, Python Pearl or Basic.

And Cross-Platform and toolkit and language development is a field where OSS excels. Pitty if it has to lose for a technical worst MS due to letargy and individualistic NIH sindromes.

I belive that Microsoft XAML is exactly that. It will function as a IDL for C#, Java#, Pearl#, VisualBasic# and possibily Python#, sharing the same *metatoolkit and theme engine* runtime implementation directive. Because even if i had 16Mbs ADSL it's stupid to wait for the browser to load all those program bits across the internet, when they can reside localy,

I belive that GUIs in itself as a paradigma, will always stay as a localy centered, sticked in front of the user, program layer.

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What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

Posted May 22, 2005 2:53 UTC (Sun) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link] (2 responses)

>> It has to do with the possibility of having the same "look & feel" across the board, whatever the application, no matter the disparate widgets & other toolkits involved

what if someone doesn't like your presentation? then they create an alternate model and you are back where you started.

face it, linux users clearly do not want one presentation layer to rule them all.

What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

Posted May 23, 2005 2:54 UTC (Mon) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link] (1 responses)

" face it, linux users clearly do not want one presentation layer to rule them all. "

That is the reason because there are *THEMES* and themes are extensibles, like one can see in KDE and less in Gnome... and even the theme engine can be extensible to some degree without losing consistent look&Feel...

What you're saying is like saying that everyone wants to be proudly alone in is small part of the desert, miles away from eachother, defending a couple of palm trees of their own oasis, like if there was a forrest everywhere that was a bad thing... its insane!

What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

Posted May 23, 2005 16:28 UTC (Mon) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link]

>> What you're saying is like saying that everyone wants to be proudly alone in is small part of the desert, miles away from eachother

no, they just want to scratch thei own itches.

its not a corporation, its an ecosystem, not everyone wants to swim in the same direction.

What the Linux Desktop Needs (OS Views)

Posted May 23, 2005 3:36 UTC (Mon) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link]

If you want a consistent look and feel (and I agree it's an advantage, although I don't think it's nearly as big as you seem to) you can do that. You can make a pure GNOME desktop, a pure KDE desktop, or if you really have taste you can use GNUStep instead.

What's that you say? All of these things are incomplete, they don't have everything you want?

Exactly. So either write the missing pieces you need, or deal with the inconsistencies.

Now if that consistent look and feel is such a killer feature, all you need to do is take one of those, fill in the missing bits, package it and sell your OS.

The reason people haven't done that is because no one with the resources to do it (and there are plenty of them in the business) really believes it's important enough to bother. If you're right and they're wrong, you've got a great opportunity to get rich proving it.

I think the original article misses a number of points, including the one above. It also keeps talking about Linux as a platform - which it isn't and never will be. Linux is a kernel. He's complaining about the practices of a number of OS vendors that use the linux kernel, but much of his complaining comes from the fact he seems to think they are all supposed to be selling the same OS. Complaining that Suse, RedHat, Debian, and Slack are different is like complaining that your Ford won't accept parts from an old Dodge. But they're all built on internal combustion engines!!! Give me a break.

The fact is he has a goal (a 'linux desktop platform' that caters to the needs of propriety software businesses) and is upset that everyone else doesn't support that goal. It's a senseless complaint. He has the freedom to pursue his goal, and even to use tons of pre-written code, including the kernel, the GNU tools, KDE, etc. produced by other people and given to him as a gift. But complaining that other people that don't share his goal aren't gifting him things written exactly to his specifications... senseless.