Re: GNOME and non-linux platforms (release team please stand up)

On 22 Jul 2009, at 19:30, David Zeuthen wrote:

> You know, maybe if the non-Linux platforms actually participated in
> _designing_ and _developing_ the core plumbing bits, threads like this
> wouldn't have to happen.

<snip>

> Anyway, if SUN started changing this behavior then maybe it would be a
> lot easier to not feel incredibly insulted by statements like "it
> behooves them as professional open source software engineers to  
> respect
> the requirements". Because right now it's the pot calling the kettle
> black.

Oh, there's no doubt Sun and our ilk have to do much better as well--  
no argument at all there (although obviously Sun has indeed made  
significant contributions to various core plumbing bits in the past,  
and is still doing so in some areas).

But even still, Sun engineers working on GNOME for OpenSolaris can't  
really avoid the fact that whatever they do contribute upstream has to  
work on Linux first and foremost, so those contributions have usually  
seen at least some cursory Linux testing before they get that far.   
Whereas IMHO it's considerably easier for other contributors to  
overlook the fact, usually quite innocently, that they could increase  
the value of their contributions just by ensuring that they work with  
minimal effort on the other platforms that GNOME embraces.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum.benson@sun.com            OpenSolaris Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems