[Desktop_architects] Linux desktop, the fun thread

[Nat Friedman]

On Tue, 2005-12-13 at 10:10 -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> Anyway, if you want the _one_ thing that drives me crazy, here's mine:

Here's a patch that makes the mouse buttons configurable: 

        http://nat.org/natacity.patch

It's configurable now; you can turn on the Linus behavior by running:

        % gconftool-2 --type int
        --set /apps/metacity/general/frame_button_lower_and_unfocus 3
        
I'll happily wear the "feature slut" t-shirts with pride now.  And
Linus, once my mouse button stops jerking when I copy big files, I'll
add a GUI for you.  ;-)

Seriously, this has been entertaining.  And I think Linus has made a lot
of good points that certain people in the GNOME world should make an
effort to take to heart.  I found myself nodding rhythmically as I read
most of his mails, even if he was being a big jerk half the time.

But the truth is both GNOME and KDE have a long way to go before we can
capture 20 million users for the Linux desktop.  And in fact most of the
things in our way right now have absolutely nothing to do with KDE and
GNOME; we need working wireless card drivers and ISVs to target Linux
for their apps.

The meeting in Portland was awesome.  I liked meeting Aaron Seigo and
Martin Konold and George Staikos.  The KDE and GNOME people embraced
tenderly and started working on making the ISVs in the room slightly
less red-faced with Project Portland.

So, let's have less of Linus being a meany and more of that good
positive stuff.

Love,
Nat