Questions for deployments of GNOME [LWN.net]

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 13:21 UTC (Sun) by drag (guest, #31333)
In reply to: Questions for deployments of GNOME by nix
Parent article: Questions for deployments of GNOME

The reason you go from something 'flexible' to something simple is you go from something that 'doesn't work' to something that does.

It happenned to me with Gnome 1.x series continiously, which is why I refused to use it. You have a hundred different things, you don't know what they do, and if you select this or that shit would randomly break.

Same thing happens to me every time I try out KDE. It would start out ok, but then I try to set it up how I like it and it would all turn into crap. Fonts get messed up, themes get messed up. I don't have time or desire to figure all that mess out.

I think people got WAY to much time on their hands to troll on about KDE vs Gnome. The only thing I see is a bunch of resentment from KDE users that Gnome gets more attention or that they've 'lost' Suse or something like that.

What sort of customisbility is lost in Gnome? I hear people go on and on about that and when you ask them about it they usually cry about Metacity or whatnot.

That's very easy to fix; install openbox, type openbox --replace, log out while having 'save session' selected, log back in and you have all the keybindings and program by program window manipulation you could ever want. It has a very nice and well documented xml configuration file also.

If you don't like 'spatial' mode then a simple fix is to install gtweakui tools, run gtweakui-nautilus and check mark 'always use browser mode', OR use the file browser icon to browse files, OR go into the gconf stuff and edit it yourself.

Seriously Gnome is a very solid desktop environment, I can understand somebody wanting to use something else, but I can't understand people wanting to see it aborted.

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Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 8:23 UTC (Mon) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link]

People want to see it aborted because it's a high profile FOSS project (they even got the GNU imprimatur, back when QT was unfree) that explicitly, violently, and vociferously rejects the notion of letting the user control their own computer. For a start.

Also ironically enough for a project that started only because of QT licensing problems, they abuse the LGPL for benefit of slave-ware makers and tout that as an advantage.

I really wish someone would force RMS to use GNOME. I bet you within an hour he'd go postal.

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 15:09 UTC (Mon) by wilck (guest, #29844) [Link] (5 responses)

That's very easy to fix; install openbox, type openbox --replace, log out while having 'save session' selected, log back in ... a simple fix is to install gtweakui tools, run gtweakui-nautilus and check mark 'always use browser mode', OR use the file browser icon to browse files, OR go into the gconf stuff and edit it yourself.

Is that GNOME's notion of simplicity? If I'm a (GNOME, not Linux) Newbie, how am I supposed to figure this out?

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 15:12 UTC (Mon) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (4 responses)

If you're a newbie, why would you care?

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 17:29 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (3 responses)

Because a Linux user who was not used to GNOME might want to... retain some of the system behaviour they were used to?

(This should be obvious.)

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 19:55 UTC (Mon) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (2 responses)

Good, a Linux poweruser should be able to read the doc, or search...

If you want to have poweruser features, you should be willing to learn the system. Why should those that just want the base featureset have to face a zillion things, that are useless to them?

You set stuff like that up ONE TIME, gconf is perfect for that. (Ok, I'm getting tired of gconf myself, but that's because I'm constantly playing with Compiz/XGL, and checking new stuff out constantly, which isn't really what gconf is meant for).

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 22:38 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

gconf is not meant for situations in which you might want to configure the system?!

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 22:51 UTC (Mon) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link]

Yes, but not repeatedly like I'm doing.

The things you need to change often is, of course, in a dialog.