Are You A Friend of Gnome?

From the donation page: "Love GNOME? Want to give back to the community of mostly volunteer developers who have worked so hard to make GNOME the powerful, flexible, friendly, fun desktop that it is?" There are a number of contribution levels a person can join at, so if you love Gnome, consider helping the foundation out.

Comments

huge strides

[dciman]

Gnome has of course made HUGE strides over the last couple of years. (and hardware has came along enough so it doesn't run like NT 4 on a pentium 90) I have played with every major release that comes out and am very impressed with their work. I think this is a great way for others to give back to the project. Not everyone is a cabable developer.

(But personally I am still a BlackBox man.... ;) I don't need UI junk)

Re:huge strides

[delta407]

Have you used NT4 on a P90? (Recall that the minimum requirements are under a 20 MHz CPU.) It's quite snappy compared to xfree86 on a 233.

And besides which, X is slower on the same hardware than Windows is. (Not to diss X, because I use it on a daily basis; I'm using it right now.) But, that's a fact of life. Gnome runs on a 1.0 GHz about as fast as Windows 98 runs on a 300 MHz. Hardware shouldn't have to come along; Gnome should (attempt to) keep pace with Windows on the same hardware.

Re:huge strides

[Ambassador Kosh]

I still don't see where people get the idea that x is slower on the same hardware then windows is. That has not been my experience at all with one exception. Overall I have found matrox and ati cards to be faster under linux then under windows for the work I usually do which is a lot of coding under kde.

However like I said I have found one exception and that is nvidia cards. I find that those ran slower under linux then under windows and where not stable under either os with my definition of stabilyt being that the system should easily have several months of uptime under fairly heavy usage.

I have been using linux for 6 years or so now and during most of that time I have used matrox or ati cards and have found x to be faster then windows even when running kde. For a brief time I ran an nvidia card and I won't but another thing from that company. Too unstable to get work done and they don't perform well enough under 2d for x.

Re:huge strides

[delta407]

I still don't see where people get the idea that x is slower on the same hardware then windows is.

Load X + Linux onto a P90 and compare it with Windows NT4. If you want to pay shipping, I have a P90 I can UPS you if you don't believe me.

I'm serious, too. E-mail me if you're interested.

Re:huge strides

[deaddeng]

in what ways do you think X is slower? To load the desktop (from "startx")? Not sure how you measure this in 2D. In 3D, I actually get equal or better framerates in OpenGL under Linux (RH 7.3) than I do with Win98SE or Win2K, ever since they added page flipping to the Linux drivers. Mozilla is kind of slow under either Linux/X or Windows. Just curious.

Re:huge strides

[delta407]

64 MB, XFree 4.2.0, a Trio64V, and the largest background service running is metalog; no inetd, no sshd, etc.

I got X onto a P133 laptop of mine (with 24 MB of RAM); fluxbox runs without swapping. But, alas, you have to admit that NT4 and Gnome are far more comparable than NT4 and fluxbox. Gnome swaps horribly (duh, base system + X takes up 22 MB of RAM) and is completely unusable, whereas NT4 does not swap at all.

It's moot anyway, because I stick with fluxbox -- but when you're talking the lowest end of the low, Windows tends to handle better as a desktop OS than Linux.

Re:huge strides

[aardvarkjoe]

Well, with 'low-end' hardware, I would think that people would be more likely to use fast and light window managers than use one of the enormous desktop environments. Gnome and KDE aren't targetted to the slow pentium/486 systems. (Neither are the latest incarnations of Windows, which will choke a moderate system just as effectively as Gnome/KDE).

Of course, I'm in agreement that for the 'full-featured' desktop, Windows tends to run better/faster. That's definately been my experience.

(I use blackbox, so the issue is moot for me as well.)

Re:huge strides

[mshiltonj]

X is slower on the same hardware than Windows is. (Not to diss X, because I use it on a daily basis; I'm using it right now.) But, that's a fact of life. Gnome runs on a 1.0 GHz about as fast as Windows 98 runs on a 300 MHz. Hardware shouldn't have to come along; Gnome should (attempt to) keep pace with Windows on the same hardware.

Pardon my ignorance, but where is the bottleneck? In X or in Gnome? Does KDE suffer from similar speed issues compared to Win32?

Re:huge strides

[Sleepy]

>I still don't see where people get the idea that x is slower on the same hardware then windows is.

Friend, you are completely wrong.

The *best case* under X is you have a driver that is *vendor supported*, or has *completely* stable and optomized drivers for XFree -- unlikely given than the Windows drivers are closed source, so we can't even compare the code..

How common is the above? Not very. Assume then you have this uncommon, best case. Do not dismiss the latency due to the loopback device... it's very real.

Sure, you can excuse the fact that some X is slow by questioning the "configuration", the vendor support, or the stability of the drivers. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT.

The point is there *is* this performance problem under X, and in some cases it's not-so-bad (GeForce & Matrox cards), and in other cases it's *really* bad performance (ATI, etc). The end result is all that matters... that Windows is running the same config faster, even if you eliminate the biggest performance excuses like driver completeness, we still have a loopback device.

And I'm only talking about 2D. Lots video boards that have "acceptable" 3D performance under Windows, have horrible 3D performance under XFree. Yes, I know it's because of driver support, but reasons tend to be confused with "excuses" when the end user encounters this.

This doen't mean I think XFree is junk or is a slug. I think it does remarkably well given what it does. On a modern configuration like I have (AMD 1900XP + GeForce4 4600), performance is pretty good but I still notice X11 redrawing more often than Windows. It's not enough difference at my speed to complain, but that's because it's buried in hardware.

All I need to do to benchmark XFree vs. Windows is fire up Return To Castle Wolfenstein @ 1600x1280, or play some full-screen oversized video from disk (using several video players not just one). If you can see a difference, there is one.

my wallet hurts...

[edrugtrader]

'free' software is getting awfully expensive lately.

Re:my wallet hurts...

[_Sprocket_]

Once again... like a vast majority of the IT industry, you fail to realize that the definition of "free" does not start and stop at the exchange of currency.

This is one of the dangers with Open Source accepting the "freeware" label. I've seen the term used more and more within the industry when referring to Open Source. And its the same problem that's faced Open Source software for years - price isn't everything.

Sure - "free beer" is nice. We all like freebies - assuming they don't blow up in our face. I've been involved in projects where the low price has been a major help. But I have also worked on projects where there are ample funds for any needed technology... and Open Source software STILL held value.

It is all the other aspects of "free software" where the real value comes in to play.

Re:my wallet hurts...

[edrugtrader]

once again the vast majority of the IT industry fails to recognize sarcasm and makes total ass of self. said 'IT industry' also spending much of their time in moms basement.

Re:my wallet hurts...

[_Sprocket_]

once again the vast majority of the IT industry fails to recognize sarcasm and makes total ass of self. said 'IT industry' also spending much of their time in moms basement.

That's the problem with humor. Its such a subjective thing. What can be hillarious when delivered by one individual can also make someone less skilled with their timing seem like an ass.

Re:my wallet hurts...

[AxelBoldt]

I don't think the rest of the world is going to change for free software, I think free software needs to change for the world. If that means that it can't be free anymore, so be it. If something isn't viable, it isn't viable.

Free software is a hobby; it is solely and exclusively done for the fun of it. Nothing more, nothing less. And as the success of free software shows, hobbies like that are very viable indeed. Certainly more viable than your average crooked US corporation.

Re:my wallet hurts...

[AxelBoldt]

Hobbyists can't or won't devote the kind of resources to projects that businesses do, and an awful lot of projects get abandoned.

Corporations can't or won't devote the kind of enthusiasm to projects that hobbyists do, and an awful lot of corporations go bankrupt.

They need to provide more info

[Tiamat]

Yes, I like gnome a lot. I might even donate money, but the problem with this link is they they don't offer any specific details about what happens with this money? Does it go to administration? How so? To major coders? which? Who qualifies? Bandwidth? Why does the Gnome Foundation do that requires our financial support?

To make matters worse, contributions seem to be handled via Ximian. I have no problem with Ximian forming as a company, or their desire to make money. Still, I'm not entirely confortable with a donation to a company. So, is Ximian providing accounting/banking services here, or are they going to directly benefit from this contribution?

I'm sure there are good answers to all of these questions, but they're not present on the donation page, and they should be.

Re:They need to provide more info

[josh crawley]

---"Yes, I like gnome a lot. I might even donate money, but the problem with this link is they they don't offer any specific details about what happens with this money? Does it go to administration? How so? To major coders? which? Who qualifies? Bandwidth? Why does the Gnome Foundation do that requires our financial support?"

I know where its gonna go.....

It's gonna pay for the slashdotting we gave 'em. heh

Re:They need to provide more info

[mosch]

I was going to give Gnome and KDE $50 each, these are both worthwhile projects which push the unix desktop forward, partially by pushing each other forward. They are monumental projects, whose success is surprising, impressive, and truly an amazing accomplishment. They're helping build Free as in Speech software, to help build a better tomorrow, and they need my support.

Then I remembered, this is Open Source Software. It's supposed to be Free as in I'm a cheap bastard so give me a free os, unmetered cable modem, and 100 gigs of downloaded mp3s. Now I've got to go reboot to windows to burn some cds, browse the internet, watch a dvd, and play some games. I use Linux for everything else though!

Re:They need to provide more info

[tempest303]

Thank god I'm not in your shoes!

I can burn CDs, browse the web, watch a DVD (with menus and DeCSS and everything!), and play some games , too, all from my GNOME desktop on Linux!

Where to?

[The Pi-Guy]

Well, two things. Being the one I am for not reading the article :), exactly where is this all going? Into Miguel de Icaza's pockets? RMS's? Whose? And two, if you're looking for a good place to donate, donate to UserFriendly. There, we know where it's going. Great comic strip. A little cash-strapped though.

--j

Alternative news story

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to start a holy war, but:

From the donation page: "Love KDE? Want to give back to the community of mostly volunteer developers who have worked so hard to make KDE the powerful, flexible, friendly, fun desktop that it is?" There are a number of contribution levels a person can join at, so if you love KDE, consider helping the foundation out.

Re:Alternative news story

[HanzoSan]

Exactly why cant slashdot editors add the KDE donation page so it doesnt seem so biased,

This is supposed to be a fair site not a site to politically promote gnome, its bad enough you have the gnome foot icon all over this site, but now we have to have promotions for gnome donations without KDE or anything else?

Lets be fair

or else its going to be a holywar.

Re:Alternative news story

[Jagasian]

Are you kidding me? Slashdot has always been pro-Gnome and anti-KDE. Even after KDE became fully GPL, Slashdot still stays biased towards Gnome.

not directly but...

[Anonymous Coward]

..tell ya what I WOULD do and I bet thousands of other people would do. If any of the major distros-or a brand new one-would voluntarily set aside a certain percentage of the proceeds from their CD releases to give to those developers who's apps are in the release-I would purchase the full install CD's from them. If it's redhat or mandrake or whomever-so be it. I like the idea of "free", but am not so cheap or naieve to think it really is. As a non coder all I can do is bug reports and cash. As a user I just honestly don't see me sending a thousand or several hundred small donations-just the dang postage would be a bear. I'm relatively po, ie, "real low end of the economic food chain", but I can pop another ten bucks for a cd set if the coders who's work went into the whole package got their share. Make it so it starts at ten, and then you can voluntarily give more, with all the extra going to the coders.

Well, good idea or what?- a co-op linux distro that actually supports all the coders with some beer and rent money, not just the release company for the packaged distro.

Re:I love gnome, KDE just not up to it

[Bitsy Boffin]

I've tried each WM, but I keep on coming back to GNOME.

nit.pick();

GNOME isn't a window manager. Neither is KDE for that matter (although KDE has it's own window manager I think (kwm ?) but GNOME does not).

Slashdot Site Updates

[EdMcMan]

Slashdot, a "geek serving" news service, owned by OSDN recently has announced they will stop announcing news, instead begging people for money, while having ads on their website.

CmdrTaco said during an interview: "Well, slashdot kept getting slashdotted, so we decided to post useless crap that no one would want to look at it, and could find elsewhere if they did want to look at it. Yes, that's it."

Some rumors from the slashdot team have indicated that perhaps the person that started this new trend, "chrisd", was really under the influence of heroin, and his /friends were covering for him. This same source said the new trend could be over as soon as the next post. More news as it comes in.

From our base on skull island

[sam_handelman]

What about the enemies of GNOME? We, the members of COBOLD, oppose project GNOME, their GUI, and all that they stand for! We will not rest until every member of the GNOME development team of lies in a shallow grave. Our leader, COBOL-commander, will overthrow the present order by military force, and restore the glorious days of punchcards and Cobol! Co-bolllll!

As for the "friends" of GNOME - we suggest you cower in terror lest you share the developers fate!

Incidentally, the classic "Kobold" was a spirit of the home or hearth - Kobe holt = hut goblin. The dog-headed lizardmen from D&D are, as many D&D things are, an artifact of somebody's supplementary artwork, and have no "basis" in mythology (although the guy who did the drawings for the Monster Manual is as qualified to make up mythology as anybody; it was all made up at some point.)

Etymology of Gnome.

Etymology of Kobold. Search the page for "cobalt".

Re:From our base on skull island

[cpeterso]

Should that be Kobold?

Re:No, I'm a friend of KDE.

[The Electric Messiah]

I hardly see the parent as being flamebait. The guy/gal prefers KDE over Gnome. As a matter of fact, I prefer KDE also, though damn KPackage crashes EVERY time in KDE 3. But seriously, BadmanX is stating he prefers KDE, thinks Gnome won't ever catch up. I think that's a pretty fair comment for a discussion about Gnome.

You need to read

[Chuck Chunder]

Checks are payable to the GNOME Foundation. The GNOME foundation is not Ximian.
Anyone who had the slightest interest in finding out what the GNOME foundation is could easily find out. Anyone just interested in trolling would simply jump to ludicrous conclusions and post them on Slashdot...

Re:You need to read

[GauteL]

He does have some valid points though. The page should state something about what the money goes for. My (un)educated guess would be something like bandwidth, GUADEC-conferences, GNOME-foundation-meetings, perhaps a small dime for independent maintainers. I don't really know, and I actually follow the GNOME-project pretty closely.

Some people are a bit uneasy about Ximian, not that I really understand them, but when they DO show up as the c/o address for payable checks (they are not involved AFAICS in the paypal-donation), there should be an explanation, just so the GNOME-project can ease these little paranoid minds.

I'd guess it is because Ximian is involved in the GNOME-foundation, and someone had to take care of this. Better to see Ximian have some paid employee do this, than some poor hacker who really doesn't want to deal with administrative stuff.

Gnome on Solaris...

[(H)elix1]

Gnome on Solaris is the thing that I can't wait for it to be bundled with... (I know it can be done today, but I cannot hork the box just yet -- and I always do). Nothing makes me jump back to command line habbits like the default Solaris windows manager. Shudder.... Gnome is the sister you really were trying to go out with.

It is soooo close. Wish version 9 shipped with it as an install option.

Slashdot is biased?!

[HanzoSan]

Why advertisements to gnome donations but not KDE, not Enlightenment, no, no posts on that?

Why support Gnome? Gnome has enough support from Sun and IBM, support KDE, they dont have big companies helping them out like Ximian, IBM, Sun etc.

Naaah

[dpilot]

Tried GNOME, tried KDE, don't use either, but keep them around for some applications, though GNOME annoys by taking over MY desktop when I click any Help buttons. Both make my machine perform like last-generation compared to a raw window manager, even icewm with dfm and icedock extras.

Isn't GNOME supposed to be "Windows done right?"

Well, what if Windows is just plain so broken that it can't be done right?

I think Apple had the right idea, and now "Mac done right" is here.

Maybe Windows is the dominant platform, and we have to accomodate that to attract new users. But that should be "stupid, backward mode," not what we aspire to.

Re:Naaah

[rtaylor]

You complain about Gnome being too heavy then say Mac has done a better job?

I think you may wish to double check that comparison on equivelent hardware -- that is, compile X and Gnome2 on Darwin. Gnome's a little snappier, but Apple sure has a nice looking interface.

Re:More OBS

[HanzoSan]

Better for it to be beggar software than for it to be overpriced $300 software

But I guess you'd prefer idiotware over beggarware considering only idiots want to be forced to pay for something when it can be free

A little off topic but...

[DanThe1Man]

is it pronouced "ga-nOme" or "nOme"

and yes, saying its pronouced "Gnome" would be a funny reply.

Re:A little off topic but...

[Michael Wardle]

The GNOME FAQ says it should be pronounced guh-nome (that is you say the "G").

What they don't show on the back of the T...

[Flower]

"I donated $500 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

Speaking of misreading

[Tiamat]

I think someone does need to learn to read more carefully, and it's not me.

I wrote that contributions seem to be handled via Ximian. From the page:

GNOME Foundation
c/o Ximian
401 Park Drive, 3rd West
Boston, MA 02215

And, yes, someone can figure out who the Gnome Foundation is, which tells them absolutely nothing about how they plan to use this money.

Re:Speaking of misreading

[luge]

That's because Tim's office space is donated by Ximian; he lived in Boston before he took the job so that made a lot of sense. AFAIK Ximian won't ever touch a dime of the money.

I'd like to donate

[Filgy]

But I can't find the place on their site where
I can send in my pocket lint. Darn.

Donate

[quasi_steller]

Donating to Free Software may sound dumb, but it really is a good idea.

1. You can donate whatever you can afford ($5.00 is better than $0.00).
2. Free Software isn't cheap (In that development costs money in several ways: hardware, time, etc. and the software itself is usually very nice)
3. It is a great way to give back to the community if your coding/writing skills are not the best

Re:Friend-of-Gnome donations

[luge]

FWIW, the board is working to set up credit card donations, and you can write a check.

EFTs

[0vi_king]

Larger sums may also be transmitted via bank wire transfer.
For details contact fundraising at gnome org

Well shoot! It looks like I can't wire them the money. I suppose will I can use Pay... Umm... a service from Ebay.

hmm, donate $$ to Gnome or Perl?

[Dr. Awktagon]

Let's see, I have $50 burning a hole in my pocket, let's choose between Gnome or Perl.

Gnome (and KDE for that matter) crashes a little too much for my tastes. The UI design could use a little more simplification and consistency. So maybe they need the money, to help improve these things. That would be good.

Perl, on the other hand, is a language that makes me money. I program in Perl and people pay the big dollar. So maybe I owe Perl a little.

Gnome has this guy that likes .NET. In fact, he likes .NET so much it's a little creepy.

Perl has this guy that looks like Weird Al, who's pretty cool. And this other guy that writes packages based on quantum mechanics and other mind-twisting stuff.

Gnome might be moving to the .NET runtime someday, which means Microsoft could possibly have a little more legal power over the project than I'd like. That could be dangerous, maybe I shouldn't give them any money.

Perl 6, though, looks like it has lost all touch with reality (I think it's pretty cool, but then again, that says more about my grip on reality than anything else). In fact I believe programming in Perl 6 will be like taking a hit of LSD. LSD is bad (the flashbacks man) so maybe they don't need my money either.

Tough one... I think I'll just keep my $50 for now.............

Re:hmm, donate $$ to Gnome or Perl?

[GauteL]

This whole .NET stuff and GNOME just has to stop. It is just FUD.

Ximian is backing Mono which if successful will become a nice OPEN SOURCE development platform for UNIX (and GNOME).

The worst thing that could happen would be that Mono would not be able to run application made for .NET, but the development platform would still have plenty of value as a very nice (kind of) language independent development platform for UNIX, and GNOME. KDE could create bindings for mono as well.

You don't have to use Mono at all for GNOME-development. It's just a (nice) alternative if you like a clean unified oo-API and would rather not deal with memory management.

Mono also has nothing to do with the core of GNOME, apart that there are some GNOME-hackers working on Mono. Mono is not part of GNOME.

Personally I like Java, and would like to see better Java-integration in GNOME, but mono looks pretty nice (and close to a Java-api for GNOME) as well.

How come

[SomeOtherGuy]

Linus never asked us to pony up a little spare change for the kernel? Looks like he is doing pretty good for himself....

If I learned one thing from my dad growing up it was when you start looking to make money from your hobbies then it's to much like your real job -- and maybe time to find a new hobby. Among his many hobby cycles, he restored old saddles and other antiques -- he would spend hundreds of hours on a project for little more than the money for materials and the gleam in his eyes when he finished a project -- when I told he he was crazy to not try to make money doing it -- he said something like "They pay me from 7 AM - 5 PM everyday to do something that has never been fun -- and if I ever have to take money from this it will mean that it has stopped being fun..." When he got burned out he would pick a new hobby.

It never hurt to get a day job. That way you can make money to afford to spend the evenings and weekends doing things you enjoy.

Re:How come

[jmu1]

And you can spend your life being miserable... from 7 to 5. You spend more time in your llife at work than any other waking hour. Why not try to enjoy it. If you loose the will to do that thing you loved to do... get another job somwhere that allows you to do something else you enjoy... Same basic theory, but on a much more realistic scale.

Re:How come

[ivan256]

he said something like "They pay me from 7 AM - 5 PM everyday to do something that has never been fun -- and if I ever have to take money from this it will mean that it has stopped being fun..." When he got burned out he would pick a new hobby.

No offence to your dad, but he's fallen into a cultural trap that's been around since the 1950's. You don't have to be unhapy to make money. You don't have to live for the weekend. If you can manage to make money from your hobby, and still have fun doing it, then you should. You can enjoy work. It's okay.

/me climbs off his soap box, and goes back to hacking on kernel code for money.

Re:Why donate to them?

[HanzoSan]

Functionality? Ok whats wrong with E16.5 in terms of functionality?

Stability? Its more stable than Gnome by far.

Flash and Eye Candy? More than Gnome will ever have.

I want a desktop to compare to OSX, save functionality for Gnome.

Even if Gnome has the best functionality KDE is still kicking its ass with its better eye candy and worthless features that geeks dont care about but all the casual users love.

Re:I love gnome, KDE just not up to it

[mcrbids]

And, I've tried each WM, including ice and a few others, and I keep coming back to KDE.

The funny part? I like Kmail and I just HAVE TO HAVE ctrl-tab for swapping desktops!

-Ben

Amazing Grace

[Ilan Volow]

And all the time I thought those tales of some fanatical cult saving Grace Hopper's brain were just urban legends.

Re:No, I'm a friend of KDE.

[Fastball]

Dear trolling Slashdot poster and KDE afficianado,

Good for you.

Sincerely,
Happy Gnome User

Re:No, I'm a friend of KDE.

[inc_x]

Then you will be happy to know that KDE has a donations page as well! ;-)

I might just give

[Wee]

I think I'll give to the KDE guys. I can't really stomach giving money to de Icaza -- he's just a little to MS-friendly and Mono is a nasty, horrible, misguided thing I could never actually pay for. KDE works just fine regardless and doesn't have any leanings (aspirations?) towards the Pacific Northwest.

Although if I could give some cash to the Blackbox guys I'd certainly do that. I've gotten quite a bit of use out of their software in the last few years...

-B

Re:I might just give

[jhoffoss]

Fluxbox is a worthwhile WM to donate to, as well, based on Blackbox 0.6, I think. Although, I'm not sure that they have a donate link...

When I get my paypal account in order though, the first donation I make will be to these guys.

Re:Begging as a business model

[kevinank]

Ya know, I just don't see begging being a viable business model.

Presumably the Gnome Foundation isn't a business but a non-profit. Most non-profits exist on either membership fees, volunteer labor, grants, or donations. The real question isn't whether the model works, it is whether there is any significant interest in philanthropy among open source advocates.

Personally I'll probably be donating at about the same level I donate to KQED. Less than I give to the EFF or the ACLU, but more than I give to the Sierra Club or my mayor's reelection campaign.

Re:I love gnome, KDE just not up to it

[fferreres]

Ok, i know you where probably trolling, but you can configure whatever you like ctrl-tab under Gnome. If you want it for a specific app, then that's app dependant (like Galeon ctrl-left means Back())

Anyway...

Misreading?

[Chuck Chunder]

No, I simply realise that the address a cheque happens to be delivered to is not significant, who the cheque is made out to is.

They clearly say they will use the money to "provide development, education and promotion for GNOME worldwide". If you want to be a friend of GNOME and have something more specific you'd like your money to go towards then just tell them. As their charter states "The foundation will be in charge of disbursing these funds to the benefit of GNOME and, to the extent possible, in accordance with the wishes of the benefactor."

There is nothing hidden here. There is info on the foundation pages, the foundation mailing list is open for all to read. There might not be a vast amount of info on the friends page but that is because they aren't putting on a hard sell. It's there for you if you feel that you'd like to contribute, not trying to make you feel that you should.

Re:I love gnome, KDE just not up to it

[fferreres]

* alt-tab (sorry, i have way too many apps loaded, and need to switch quickly)

Settings -> Control Settings -> Sawfish -> Shortcuts:

[Global] M-TAB : Cycle Windows
Modifier key: ALT

* taskbar (I even has a taskbar on my amiga before windows)

Well...we know both have

* window placement alignment (nice feature, snap alignment in windows)

Both have.

* Cut and paste (icewm supports windows keys)

For mostly every app: defaults to ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrol-x (MS like)

For HTML browsing: Settings -> Control Settings -> Document Handlers -> HTML Viewer -> ShortCuts: [MS Like]

Well, you should annotate your article then.

[Chuck Chunder]

Because in your article you claim not to favor one over the other.

Personally I think you've chosen the wrong one to bet your development time on. And the reason isn't so much to do with either KDE or GNOME. It's still all to do with the toolkits QT and GTK and their licencing. With GTK everyone is on an equal footing, there is no one company above all others. The LGPL allows largely proprietary companies to come in and experiment without worrying too much about any potentially confusing licencing issues. Basically there's a nice level playing field where everyone is free to make their own decisions for their own reasons.

But in any case, the choice is yours. I have no desire to change you mind and wouldn't bother commenting on my support of GNOME if this were a KDE story.

Give or dont give, but for a better reason

[gnugnugnu]

It has already been explained several times in this discussion

Gnome is not just Ximian
Gnome Foundation still not Ximian
Ximian are one of the members of the Gnome foundation, Ximian contribute to Gnome.

The guy from Gnome Foundation handling the money has been provided with office space by Ximian, from the sounds of it he does not even work for Ximian.

Much as Miguel De Icaza might want it to be, Mono is not a part of Gnome. See the Gnome section of the Mono FAQ
http://www.go-mono.com/faq.html#gnome

Sometimes Microsoft comes up with ideas worth pursueing, sometimes not (and sometimes they are just rehashing what i think would be better done using Java but it is as much about control as it is the technology). Mono is a competitor to .Net and although it may encourage the use of C# (aka D flat) it gives people an alternative implementation of the .Net framework that they are unlikely to be trapped by vendor lock in.

You still might not want to give to the Gnome Foundation, but many projects will accept donations directly and you could pay a few bucks to get that bug fix you really want or the feature request no one really has enough time to do,
or you could try the other major linux desktop.

enjoy!

Re:So for $5000 of my hard earned cash...

[RatFink100]

A more interesting question would be -

If I had $5000 to spare and was using GNOME would I

a) donate it to GNOME get mousemat, t-shirt etc
b) pay a programmer directly to write the features I wanted to see implemented
c) take that holiday I've been promising myself.

I think it would be c) but b) is next.