Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 7, 2021 21:45 UTC (Thu) by pebolle (guest, #35204)
In reply to: Some unlikely 2021 predictions by rgmoore
Parent article: Some unlikely 2021 predictions

> Instead, it will convince them to move elsewhere.

Which I think is a good outcome.

> By having more than one desktop, the distribution isn't in deep trouble when the one desktop it uses suddenly sucks.

Hasn't Fedora defaulted to Gnome for well over one decade now? Or is it two decades? Likewise for Suse and KDE. So this looks quite theoretical to me. And moreover, by focusing on one desktop the chances of it suddenly sucking, to a distribution using it, should get even lower. Because more developers and users are actually using it and improving it (directly or through feedback).

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 7, 2021 22:05 UTC (Thu) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

You said

> - RedHat will finally stop funding half-a-dozen-of-the-same-thing and force Fedora to only work on a single desktop offering (ie, Gnome);

Red Hat isn't funding multiple desktops. It is focusing on one. It just so happens that Fedora (which has a lot more folks involved) has volunteers interested in working on others and they handle the other desktop environments. For the large part, what gets downloaded and used is Fedora workstation.

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 7, 2021 22:19 UTC (Thu) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link]

> It just so happens that Fedora (which has a lot more folks involved) has volunteers interested in working on others and they handle the other desktop environments.

Processing power, storage and bandwidth are not free. Not at all. Neither are employees (one full-time employee per hundred volunteers?).

And, even if all of the above were free, my point is that other desktop environments add negative value.

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 8, 2021 20:55 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

As a SUSE/KDE user, KDE$ was to me a disaster - I abandoned KDE.

My main desktop was an Athlon Thunderbird (K8?), and I simply couldn't log in. I don't know how long it took to go from login screen to usable desktop - I think the longest I waited was 24-36 hours before I gave up.

I went back once I managed to fix it (gentoo is wonderful here :-), but disasters like that cost you users...

Cheers,
Wol

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 11, 2021 10:32 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link] (2 responses)

> And moreover, by focusing on one desktop the chances of it suddenly sucking, to a distribution using it, should get even lower.

This would be true if divas^H developers liked to "focus" on fixing bugs. But they prefer refactoring and (re)writing on a regular basis. So some redundancy and alternatives are useful.

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 11, 2021 18:35 UTC (Mon) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link] (1 responses)

> This would be true if divas^H developers liked to "focus" on fixing bugs. But they prefer refactoring and (re)writing on a regular basis. So some redundancy and alternatives are useful.

So the developers of the default desktop prefer refactoring and rewriting, on a regular basis actually, and the developers of the alternatives don't? Apperently the incentives for the developers of alternative desktop are totally different.

(Because rhetorical questions suck: I think the developers of the default desktop and the alternatives are basically subject to the same incentives. Except some of the developers of the default are actually _paid_ to fix bugs. And I expect the default to have less bugs than the alternatives anyhow, as it is being used much more often.)

Some unlikely 2021 predictions

Posted Jan 26, 2021 16:51 UTC (Tue) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

> So the developers of the default desktop prefer refactoring and rewriting, on a regular basis actually, and the developers of the alternatives don't?

This is not about "default" vs "alternatives", it's only about having more choice and more competition.

> Because rhetorical questions suck

Especially the ones put in others' mouth.