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Not just one deficiency. In addition to size, there was the wonky handwriting recognition, and the price.

You can roll it up into one meta-deficiency: the Newton didn't make a good PDA. From comments I'm reading here, it makes a heck of a compact mini-laptop. But that's not how it was sold.

The reason the Palm took off big-time is that the Palm made a great PDA. The size was perfect, the handwriting recognition was solid, and the price was reasonable ($300 at introduction). The Palm doesn't work as well as the Newton as a mini-laptop, though, so if that's what you want, don't get a Palm.

I've always been annoyed that Steve Jobs killed the Newton outright, when there was a loyal core user base that wanted Newton to not die. A group of Newton developers got together and made a serious bid to license the Newton from Apple, and Jobs refused. I don't know if he expected to introduce an Apple PDA, and wanted Newton dead so it couldn't compete; or if he just didn't like the Newton since it wasn't ever his baby.

The good news is that in the near future, you should be able to put together a Newton-like package: take one of the new small computers with a touch-screen (like the Oqo, which may actually ship someday) and run a GNOME system on a Linux kernel. Now run GNOME Storage. (I haven't used a Newton, so I don't really know how the "data soup" system works; if I'm wrong and GNOME Storage isn't Newton-like, perhaps there is some other free software project that will be Newton-like.)

Once there is free software that is Newton-like, you can have your Newton happiness and no one can take it away from you.

steveha

Here's some useful links to UI design concepts.

I can't believe the Gnome human interface guidelines weren't included.

For completeness:
Gnome Hig

bugzilla

An optional MDI interface is listed as an enhancement in GIMP's bugzilla, along with a discussion of what it would take to implement. The last update was posted in January 2004.

ID 7379

The easiest way to get new versions of Gnome software is via garnome!

Garnome 0.30.1 was just released and it features the latest version of Gnome (2.5.5), The new, non ugly file dialog (but not all programs use it yet) and of course, Gnome Applications, including Gnumeric 1.2.6.

It is designed for IA-32 Gnu/Linux, but it should work on most OS's. Download it now.
And if you liked the power of garnome, you may be interested in the power of Gentoo Linux, which is like garnome for your entire distribution!

I know this is a trivial thing, but it's a real pain in the butt to have to use ksh all the time because most Solaris boxen I've worked on don't have Bash installed by default.

The same goes for OpenSSL and a bunch of other tools that would be great to have but that I cannot count on being there.

On the other front, having Gnome as a gui readily available is definitely deserving of kudos. If only I had more than ssh access to most of the boxes I work with, I could actually use it. We have Hummingbird Exceed, but it's such a HUGE pain to set up. Neither myself, a reasonably good programmer, nor any of the sysadmins at the very large bank where I work know how to set it up.

Alas.

-- Kevin J. Rice

Though more likely is the fact that their 'itch' is likely internationalization/localization issues which we [dumb Westerners] don't care about.

There are plenty of i18n/l10n projects out there. Gnome, KDE, Mandrake, OpenOffice and Mozilla all have active projects going. The FSF has the Translation Project. Get out there and localize!

There is, as of today

Something magical is upcoming. I've tried to find anything about Evolution Dataserver version 2.0 mentioned in interview, and all I found so far were references to cvs. Looks like apart few developers accessing thisnew wombat no one else knows what it is, how it is designed and how it works.

No, it's not a secret. Perhaps you should try looking harder.

Since KDE 3.2 already finished compiling on two of my machines (haven't upgraded this one yet), does that make me less of a Mad Zealot?

Why yes, I believe it does, unless you're a necrophiliac, in which case all bets are off. Personally, I'm and entirely different kind of Mad Zealot.

Thats not so much out of the ordinary.

Something like that might seem useless at first; but it is important for gui developers to

1- Follow a standard for the type of application or OS

2- Make sure that the choice selected does is not a problem when taken into context either locally or when transelated. {example: in US english close,exit,quit all have very similar meanings and usually can be interchanged. That is not so for other languages, or even in some other countries...

To show how non trivial that item is, when writing a gnome app, did you know that when each should be used has already been defined in the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines? Specifically table 4.5 in the standard menus section.

When people ask what is the difference between windows, gnome, and KDE, it is usually in the subtle things like how "close" and "minimise" act.

This is also one of the major reasons why mac users love their OS. Usually mac developers follow the quidelines for the mac gui very closely making the overall feel that the interface gives seem much more "stable"; much more "user friendly"....

Thats not so much out of the ordinary.

Something like that might seem useless at first; but it is important for gui developers to

1- Follow a standard for the type of application or OS

2- Make sure that the choice selected does is not a problem when taken into context either locally or when transelated. {example: in US english close,exit,quit all have very similar meanings and usually can be interchanged. That is not so for other languages, or even in some other countries...

To show how non trivial that item is, when writing a gnome app, did you know that when each should be used has already been defined in the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines? Specifically table 4.5 in the standard menus section.

When people ask what is the difference between windows, gnome, and KDE, it is usually in the subtle things like how "close" and "minimise" act.

This is also one of the major reasons why mac users love their OS. Usually mac developers follow the quidelines for the mac gui very closely making the overall feel that the interface gives seem much more "stable"; much more "user friendly"....

According to a thread on the gnome-vfs-list, the problem is that LUFS relies on a Linux-specific kernel module.

how often do you open files, and how often do you rename files? "Click to rename" was decided against because it's too easy to accidentally click the filename of an icon putting you into rename mode when you meant to open the file.

If you are advocating "click to rename" that was discussed and decided against because opening files is much more common than renaming them, and it's easy to accidentally click on the filename when you were intending to just open it: http://bugs.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44772

And the only other way to expose renaming to the user besides standards menus and keyboard shortcuts (all of which nautilus has) is the retarded Apple system-wide menu-bar, and GNOME nor linux isnt going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.

When it comes to window programming, object-oriented is the way to go.

Man, I hear this a lot from MFC programmers. GNOME/GTK's lowest level API is not in C++. It is written in C. However, there are well-supported C++ bindings, which I have written code with and been happy with. This is particularly funny, since you're talking about MFC as being an example of what you want -- and the same thing is true of Win32 (C) and MFC (C++ sitting on top).

Not *only* that, but even the C-level code is object-oriented. It's not "half assed" object orientation either, as I see a lot of claims of. I have the ability to use either, and I'e chosen to use the C-based approach. Really, the only people I know of who yell and scream about the fundamental GNOME/GTK API are those who (a) program most of the time in Java and don't like using C and simply complain at the sight of it or (b) program most of the time in C++ (frequently ex-MFCers) and don't like using C and again complain at the sight of it. All this is *doubly* funny since there are a *ton* of language bindings. If you like a language, support is probably there in at least GTK. If you want to use Java to write your GNOME apps, if you really feel that you need a language that requires you to use OO interfaces (which C++ is *not*), then by all means, go ahead and do it.

Come to think of it, I don't believe I've used a procedural style GUI API since coming to UNIX. Actually, no, there's Tk. And I've used Xlib.

Of course, the elegance of the result is still debatable, but fortunately, there are lots of language bindings available.

Prototyping an app will probably take less time if you don't have the compile/link cycle... worth a try, anyhow.

Actually, it's even easier if you just use fucking libglade. That way, the .glade file is kept as a separate xml UI definition file, and you don't need to compile the whole program when you need to change some widget properties.

Code generation wigh Glade is stupid. libglade + glade is the way to go, and it's the preferred method used in gnome development. So please, avoid glade code generation like plague (code generation won't be available in glade 3 anyway).

The Lizard.

MySQL.

GNU Project.

Slackware Linux.

Mepis Linux.

K Desktop Environment.

Gnome.

Perl.

Apache WebServer.

Roxen WebServer (very intuitive, and GPL!).

Phew!! And that's a short list!! There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of open source, free-for-all applications.... so many it's almost absurd not to use them!! Go ahead and get them!

Actually that's called Usability Testing, though not enough people know about it.

openoffice is neither assimilated by gnome or part of it. there still is
gnome office consisting of gnumeric, abiword and co...

if openoffice gets installed instead that's ok. it integrates into gnome, where's the problem? (besides some ui inconsistencies which are to be corrected)

I don't want to play with monkeys... I want konquer the net. :-)

I play with monkeys AND Conquer the net.

The GNOME people have always been bold in trying out new strategies. After the gnome2 drive to simplify the UI and move away from featuritis it has come a long way. There are some exciting developments like dashboard, gstreamer and desktop integration bounty hunt. Watch out for 2.6!

Note that desktop environment usability should not be judged on its similarity to another. If you've only ever used Windows, and you like the Windows interface, and you judge everything against Windows, KDE may seem more appealing. But that doesn't mean KDE (or GNOME) is better.

For many of us, the Windows interface is not ideal. I might also question the quality of the SuSE GNOME environment, too, since they have long been a KDE based desktop (confession: I've never tried it). Try a GNOME-centric distribution (like Fedora) and try GNOME, you might find it more appealing.

Finally, GNOME's widgets can all be themed, did you only use the default? art.gnome.org hosts tons of widget, window and icon themes with which I could nearly convince you your environment was any number of other OSs.

See GNOME Storage. It's still a work in progess, but it's exactly what you describe and sounds interesting.

Maybe you were using an older version of wxWindows based on GTK+1.X? IMO, wxWindows using GTK+2.x looks very nice. You do know that GTK+ suports themes right? I think many of the gtk2 themes look very nice. You can make your widgets look like MS Windows, or Mac OS, or orange pumpkins if that suits your taste.

Maybe you were using an older version of wxWindows based on GTK+1.X? IMO, wxWindows using GTK+2.x looks very nice. You do know that GTK+ suports themes right? I think many of the gtk2 themes look very nice. You can make your widgets look like MS Windows, or Mac OS, or orange pumpkins if that suits your taste.

Make money through the Gnome Bounty Hunt:

http://www.gnome.org/bounties/

Andy Hertzfeld is one of the guys who helped design the original Mac, and also one of the people behind Eazel, the GNOME UI polishing group. Eazel was the group that contributed Nautilus file manager to GNOME. Strangely, Eazel's webpage now displays jibberish...

You could try using Ratpoison and screen. Of course, there are a number of projects that seek to change the way various information is handled/presented/etc. See, for example, Chandler, Haystack,Gnome Storage, and WinFS. These all seem to be addressing the fundamental problem of managing ever growing amounts of information on personal computers.

Would this be considered prior art?

Actually, gint is always guaranteed to be the same as int. There are things like guint32 and guint64 for particular integer sizes (proof).

I love working on an OSS, but I think future Linux Worlds should try to make a better effort to attract end-users. I understand some companies might not want to be on the exibition floor if they are not going to increase sales, but the second you find out I am an end-user (not a developer/IT Manager/Purchase Order Manager) you should not give me polite push to the .org pavilion. I spent a lot of time updating my skills, and I plan to spend more time attempting to evangelizeing to people that migt attent future LWs (even in Boston) who might be in a position to make a large scale purchase.

Look a how that other Bi-Annual IDG Conferences value end-users.

Explain this then.
And this.
And this.

Explain this then.
And this.
And this.

Explain this then.
And this.
And this.

When GNOME's HIG adopted a new Okay/Cancel button order, apps had to change their code to adopt to the new format.

You've misunderstood the Gnome HIG. Don't feel bad, many people do. The HIG covers so much more than simple pixelpushing and the physical layout of a program gui. Case in point: the HIG specifically recommends against the use of Okay/Cancel-buttons, and suggests the following: "Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print."

Comprehensive UI design decisions such as the HIG aren't possible to enforce as a desktop-wide policy -- they need to be carefully crafted.

When GNOME's HIG adopted a new Okay/Cancel button order, apps had to change their code to adopt to the new format.

You've misunderstood the Gnome HIG. Don't feel bad, many people do. The HIG covers so much more than simple pixelpushing and the physical layout of a program gui. Case in point: the HIG specifically recommends against the use of Okay/Cancel-buttons, and suggests the following: "Write button labels as imperative verbs, for example Save, Print."

Comprehensive UI design decisions such as the HIG aren't possible to enforce as a desktop-wide policy -- they need to be carefully crafted.

The UI is written in glade, and the helix engine is wrapped in a GtkWidget-based GObject.

This makes it easy to create your own UI or even custom player

UI feedback is welcome on the users mailing list, users@player.helixcommunity.org, which you can subscribe to on https://player.helixcommunity.org.

Let's take out the GNOME Foundation so we can get rid of crap like their committee-made guidelines, their vendor-sponsored bounties and other useless upcomings from their committee members so we won't care about getting usable software.

Not to mention all other committee initiatives hindering Free Software from evolving. ;)

--
"Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and musicplayer stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services." - Microsoft

choice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chois)
1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling acommodity or service

Let's take out the GNOME Foundation so we can get rid of crap like their committee-made guidelines, their vendor-sponsored bounties and other useless upcomings from their committee members so we won't care about getting usable software.

Not to mention all other committee initiatives hindering Free Software from evolving. ;)

--
"Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and musicplayer stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services." - Microsoft

choice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chois)
1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling acommodity or service

Let's take out the GNOME Foundation so we can get rid of crap like their committee-made guidelines, their vendor-sponsored bounties and other useless upcomings from their committee members so we won't care about getting usable software.

Not to mention all other committee initiatives hindering Free Software from evolving. ;)

--
"Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and musicplayer stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services." - Microsoft

choice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chois)
1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling acommodity or service

Let's take out the GNOME Foundation so we can get rid of crap like their committee-made guidelines, their vendor-sponsored bounties and other useless upcomings from their committee members so we won't care about getting usable software.

Not to mention all other committee initiatives hindering Free Software from evolving. ;)

--
"Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and musicplayer stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services." - Microsoft

choice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chois)
1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling acommodity or service

Let's take out the GNOME Foundation so we can get rid of crap like their committee-made guidelines, their vendor-sponsored bounties and other useless upcomings from their committee members so we won't care about getting usable software.

Not to mention all other committee initiatives hindering Free Software from evolving. ;)

--
"Windows is about choice - you can mix and match software and musicplayer stuff. We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services." - Microsoft

choice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chois)
1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling acommodity or service

Linux : going from competing desktops to competing desktop initiatives...

The KDE project is famous for its funded and organised trolling of weblogs and message board associated with Linux and Free software/open source. Outrageous newbie impressing claims are made for the software and huge quanities of FUD are spread to destroy competitors. If this sounds familiar, then you are correct, most of these tactics were lifted straight from Microsoft's arsenal of dirty tricks. The Windows look and feel is not the only thing the KDE project has copied! In this short article I will address some of the lies and FUD spread by the KDE trolling teams. It is my hope that this, in some small way, will redress the balance and re-introduce two things almost eradicated by the KDE project: Honesty and facts.

Myth #1 - KDE is more integrated than GNOME

The oft-heard cry of the noisiest KDE advocates. No explanation is given, the reader is expected to simply grok the wholesomeness of KDE and the lack of this mystical quality in GNOME. It is nonsense of course. Neither desktop is particularly "integrated" compared to Windows XP, and certainly not compared any version of the Apple Mac. Whatever "integrated" actually means.

Myth #2 - KDE is easier to use

Again, such nebulous arguments are never explained, and the reader is expected to simply understand the truth of the zealots statement. Both KDE and GNOME have user-interface irritations (all systems do), but "ease of use" is not a simple thing to measure. KDE has never been subjected to detailed user testing, unlike GNOME, and the claims of user-friendliness are from crazed supporters and not average users. Furthermore, the KDE faithful rarely look beyond simple-minded copying of Windows, and forget that administering a desktop system is just as important as having widgets in the correct place on the toolbar. For example: What about application installation and removal? GNOME has the excellent RedCarpet by Ximian, which makes the installation, removal and updating of applications trivial. KDE users are expected to fend for themselves with brutal command line driven systems. GNOME also has the excellent Ximian setup tools to handle various tricky cross-platform and potentially risky system configuration operations. KDE offers none of this, only a few small half-assed Linux-only tools, which make no attempt at check-pointing to return to known working configurations.

Myth #3 - KDE is more popular

In what sense? Arguably more people use KDE, but it is a close run thing. Most KDE zealots use the results of online polls as proof of their superior userbase - which is, quite frankly, complete and utter nonsense. Online polls are the joke of the century; it doesn't even require a motivated script kiddie to render then worthless. A single post alerting the faithful on a zealot-ridden site can skew the result so much it makes American presidential elections look fair and well organised. Popularity is also difficult to measure when *both* GNOME and KDE are frequently installed on the same system. The systems can co-exist and even run at the same time, except for certain applications such as panels. Many KDE users actually run GNOME applications for their superior features and stability, not realising that by doing so they are barely running KDE at all.

One of the few solid measures of popularity is commercial use of a desktop, and here, GNOME is far ahead with both Hewlett Packard and Sun committing to using GNOME as the desktop for their Unix systems. This also ties in with the previously mentioned ease of use. Sun's major contribution to the GNOME project is in the areas of user/developer documentation, testing, accessiblity and user-testing. Three of the less glamourous parts of desktop development. The arrival of the GNOME 2.x series will see these contributions reach fruitition and allow GNOME to make a quantum leap ahead of KDE in most of the basic computer/user issues.

Myth #4 - Konqueror is

Check out the Art Section of gnome.org. There are a half-dozen GTK themes there that mimic the look of OSX even down to the brushed-metal look of iTunes.

Check out the Art Section of gnome.org. There are a half-dozen GTK themes there that mimic the look of OSX even down to the brushed-metal look of iTunes.

Closed source apps often have non-obvious names too while they are being developed. It's only when marketing etc get involved that "reasonable" names get tacked on (and then only sometimes, I think you underestimate how hard finding a good name is and I don't see you offering any suggestions for alternatives). However all that happens behind closed doors.

In Open Source however the development is open to the public so a project can quickly become known by the first name it is given. Meanwhile coders aren't going to sit back and stop coding while focus groups and naming comittees mull over a good name. They'll quickly come up with something they are happy with and get on with the business at hand, actually creating the software.

At the end of the days names aren't that important . That's obviously true for infrastructure applications like most of those given these awards that no user needs to ever hear about. Even for end user apps assuming distributers/packagers follow sensible guidelines there should be no issue for end users.