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Rasterman Speaks On E17 And The Future
JigSaw writes: "The team consisting of TheRasterman and Mandrake (among others) are hard at work to bring Enlightenment 0.17 to the Linux desktop. E17 will be a lot more than a window manager, something closer to a complete GUI solution for X. OSNews hosts an interesting interview with Rasterman and also features some (unseen-before) screenshots of E17. Some say that E17 will be the next big thing in the GUI design (even if Rasterman states in the interview that Linux won't probably take over the Desktop), with plans to incorporate libraries like eVas, which look very modern in concept, design and implementation."
Look, the problem with Linux, and I've said this time and again, is that we don't need a variety of desktop environments. If we did, GEM (for those of you old enough to remember what it was) and OS/2 would be competing with Windows. They're not, they're dead.
Linux needs a single GUI. Be it Gnome, KDE, or whatever. Pick one, build it right. Follow Microsoft's example and do extensive usability tests, and make it easy and intuitive for the user to use it. Otherwise, you're just not going to see Linux EVER enter the desktop market. Yeah, I know, a lot of you guys use it. You represent less than 1% of the computer using market.
I've always hoped that Linux could crack the desktop market. I want to see it compete with MS. I want to be writing applications for Linux. The problem is, I just don't think that's ever going to happen. There are too many factions, and no single one appears to have a huge advantage. All of these GUIs are being written by programmers, for programmers.
I've used Gnome. I could figure my way around it 90% of the time, but I've been programming for 22 years. I'm way less than 1% of the desktop users in that regard.
Give your GUI to your mother, your father, your grandparents. If they can all figure it out, then you're on to something. If they can't, then you've really got nothing.
What of directfb and other candidates for The Next Big Thing? I think directfb is very cool from a graphics perspective, since it uses the full 2D and 3D capabilities of a card, and can fall back to software modes if necessary. It's also independent of X, has a Gtk+ port, ... Besides, we all know Rasterman couldn't code his way out of a paper bag... He could sell his code to the Olive Garden as genuine spaghetti.