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Interview w/Jim Gettys

Posted by Hemos on from the getting-to-know-you-getting-to-know-all-about-u dept.

infodragon writes "Linux Power has a really good interview with Jim Gettys, one of the origional X developers and now actively involved with GNOME." He's also done much work with the handheld iPaq.

4 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Kind of ironic that this guy who did so much with X was named after the process that allows you to log into a non-graphic terminal...

    Signed: Paul Xdms.

  2. Re:GNOME is dying by Nailer · · Score: 5

    Okay, I'll contribute my $0.02. I use KDE and GNOME's latest released frequently throughout my day between four machines across Linux and Solaris, simply because I like to stay current on these things.

    As of right now:

    KDE has a current stable release that's around two months old. GNOME has a current release that's unstable, and a stable release that's a year and a half old and not particularly capable. Again, on the same note,KDE has a working stable file manager and browser. Nautilus is still massively screwed, Mozilla is slow on an Athlon 900 machine with 384MB RAM, and this is at a 0.91 stage - a little to late to be worried about stability concerns. Galeon, unlike the rest, works properly, but still isn't finished. And GMC is...well, you know GMC.

    KDE's desktop can create shortcuts. GNOME's used to be able to do this, but the Nautilus developers decided software antialiasing was more important than the ability to create a launcher without a text editor. This is a bizarre and unusual concept of usability.

    Although GTK will be around for a while, QTs cross platform (X,Framebuffer,Win32,Quartz) capabilities make it very popular for anyone writing cross platform apps.

    GNOME still doesn't present the window management / desktop as seemlesly as KDE does. End users don't see why they have to configure their look and feel from more than one place. The GNOME control center's `apply' `warning you made changes!' is unnecessarily scary. Sawfishs meta options aren't GNOME ones, and theres still much duplication in functionality between the two.

    AFAIK there's no GNOME application design guidelines similar to the Windows / MacOS / KDE ones. Feel free to correct me otherwise.

    Outside the Unix world (which is the world Linux needs to win over for the World Domination), C++ is vastly more popular than C - not that QT doesn't work with C (or that GTK doesn't work with C++ for that matter).

    Both are severely broken in that they don't work with each other properly, and GTK/QT apps pened in KDE/GNOME look and work poorly. Not that they're in the menus to find or anything...

    And both can't install standard packages graphically in a useable way (ie, multiple packages, retrievable from multiple sources with dependencies). GNOME's actually much better in this regard than KDE with Red Carpet, but I' not sure how easy it is for third partis to create Red Carpet `channels'.

  3. Maybe X isn't so bloated... by Mr_Person · · Score: 4

    He makes some very interesting remarks about the bloat the many people attribute to the X server. For instance, depending on the graphics card, the X server can look like it is using an extra 8 to 64mb of space that it isn't, due to the way it maps the display card. There is also some good information on current efforts to remove some of the bloat caused by other parts of the server, such as I18N.
    --

  4. Orson Welles: A Mircrosoft open-source nay-sayer? by screwballicus · · Score: 4
    "I entered into this campaign with one purpose only, to point out and make public the dishonesty, the downright villainy of Boss Jim Gettys' political machine, now in complete control of this state. I made no campaign promises, because until a few weeks ago, I had no hope of being elected. Now however, I am something more than a hope. Jim Gettys, Jim Gettys has something less than a chance. Every straw vote, every independent poll shows that I'll be elected. Now I can afford to make some promises. The working man, the working man and the slum child know they can expect my best efforts in their interests. The nation's ordinary citizens know that I'll do everything in my power to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the underfed. But here's one promise I'll make, and Boss Jim Gettys knows I'll keep it. My first official act as governor of this state will be to appoint a special district attorney to arrange for the indictment, prosecution, and conviction of Boss Jim Gettys."

    - direct quote from Orson Welles' "Kane" character in Citizen Kane