[Desktop_architects] Printing dialog and GNOME

Alex Graveley alex at beatniksoftware.com
Tue Dec 13 12:56:31 PST 2005


Shit!  I guess I need to get the website up now :-)
Luckily, it's in GNOME CVS as "gimmie" already, if people are interested.

-Alex


Mike Shaver wrote:
> On 13-Dec-05, at 1:05 PM, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> 
>> out of morbid curiosity, what is the source of your interest in the  
>> Linux
>> desktop?
> 
> 
> I'm not sure why that curiosity is morbid, or why my interest is  itself 
> interesting, but I'll bite nonetheless.
> 
> I'm interested personally in the Linux desktop for many historical  
> reasons, certainly: I've been following GNOME  since basically before  
> it existed, and was involved with Ximian in various ways that I'm  sure 
> kept the acquisition price down nicely for Novell.
> 
> Philosophically, I'm interested in the Linux desktop because I'm into  
> open source software for economic and social reasons.  I could go on  
> and on, but I'm sure everyone else  on this list could as well.
> 
> Practically and professionally, I often ask myself why I'm interested  
> in the Linux desktop, because I try to be pragmatic about that sort  of 
> thing, and I have a very hard time justifying using the Linux  desktop 
> on a day-to-day basis.  I'm sure everyone at the summit saw  my 
> Powerbook, the switch to which was a heartbreaking moment in many  
> ways.  (In other ways, most of which were listed at the summit, it  was 
> a great relief.)
> 
> I think that, at its best, the Linux desktop can go places that  
> Microsoft and Apple will not be willing to go, in terms of user  control 
> over their data, their communication, and their computing  experience.  
> (From the obvious DRM examples to just having  localizations for 
> communities which are too small to be economically  supported by MSFT or 
> AAPL.)  I think the Linux desktop is at its best  when it promotes 
> experimentation, big bold ballsy gambles, and lets  market evolution 
> pick the best results with bloody claw and gleaming  fang.  I think it's 
> _not_ at its best when it is beholden to gods of  a HIG, enterprise 
> requirements, what Microsoft has done with its  products, or even (more 
> controversially) the expectations of the  users it inherited from twm.  
> The economics -- physics, even? -- of  the Linux desktop are 
> fundamentally different from those of Windows  or OS X, and I think we 
> (those who are interested in the Linux  desktop for their own reasons) 
> would do well to take advantage of  those differences, instead of trying 
> to stamp them out so that their  offering is easier for <some group> to 
> swallow.
> 
> If I had to write the "project cooperation" document, I would  probably 
> write one line: "don't cannibalize".  Create, don't  convert.  Compete 
> against non-consumption.  Most of the world hasn't  chosen an operating 
> system.  <Insert Doc Searls and a rental car  company here.>  If we laid 
> all the dialogs out end to end we could  pave a road to software 
> nirvana.  Rah rah.  Make it _easy_ for people  to do totally new stuff, 
> like Gimmie, and then promote the hell out  of it.  If it sucks, find a 
> new one.  The Linux desktop should be  what lets you do what you _can't_ 
> do elsewhere, not the one where you  can do _most_ of the stuff you can 
> do elsewhere, but with better  software licensing terms on some of it.  
> (The licensing terms make a  lot of cool shit possible, don't get me 
> wrong, but it's the shit  that's made possible that makes users excited.)
> 
> The rest of the Mozilla world would probably be mortified to read  that 
> they were represented at the summit by such a nutcase, so please  don't 
> attribute my craziness to the broader community.
> 
> I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else, but, in my  
> defense, you _did_ ask.
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
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