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GNOME 2 to Replace CDE As Solaris Default DE
Gentu writes "OSNews had a quick chat with John Fowler, Sun Software's CTO about Solaris 10, Java, the web services competition and more. In the interview, Fowler reveals the timing in which Gnome2 will become the default desktop environment: Solaris 10, which is expected to have its first beta later in 2003. This is a huge step for Gnome2 in the UNIX world, as it will be replacing CDE for good as the default desktop environment (betas of Gnome 2 for Solaris 8/9 already exist) and becoming a standard part of the large operating environment with millions of installations worldwide. Additionally, Sun is now pushing developers on coding on either GTK+ 2.x or Java (they have in fact revealed plans on creating GTK+ bindings for Java which will make all future Solaris apps look like alike)."
Granted, this was the first time I read osnews, but didn't the article seem weird to anyone? They hinted at an interview, but instead of quoting the person, they paraphrased the whole interview... Who knows what the Sun guy actually said, and what got interpreted by the interviewer/writer?
Je ne parle pas francais.
Not a troll, but does anyone else feel that strategically, TrollTech should have made QT LGPL?
KDE is much more tightly done than GNOME and the overall effect is defnly smoother, kinda like Windows done right!
But if Companies prefer GNOME, then in the long run TrollTech will see reduced demand for its product... or am i wrong?
Of course, there is the counterargument that LGPL would ensure that TrollTech would never get any money out of QT, but i suspect that it would have fetchdd more in the long run, like it is doing for Ximian.... consulting you know!
A crank is a little thing that makes revolutions
I think you fail to realize the gravity of what is going on here. GNOME is being shipped as the default desktop for the biggest player in the commercial UNIX market.
And Sun is definitely mainstream. Maybe not if you're talking about the home PC market (Joe Dumbass Windows XP user with his shiny new Dell). However, if you're involved in any sort of scientific work or other serious applications such as oil exploration then chances are good that you're using a Sun workstation.
What's important to note here is that a major open source project has become a key component of an OS that holds a large share of the high-end market - a market that open source and MS OS's currently lack the technical merit to enter. In other words, open source software now has credibility for high-end, serious work. An important step.
I wonder if this commitment to Gnome from Sun could also be considered some sort of admission that Swing, despite years of research and development, is not (yet?) that adeguate to make a desktop environment.
But then, Sun people probably just didn't want to reinvent the wheel.
Actually, that would be very useful. Solaris/CDE is seen on a lot of high-profiles desktops where training is very expensive (think traders at a bank). It would be kind of nice to be able to switch desktops on the users without them noticing.
Allthough flamebait, I agree with you. We run Solaris at school for Java programming, Matlab, Maple and some other stuff. CDE is default of course. Most people have no idea how to do anything. They can open a terminal and know how to start (x)emacs and compile a Java program. When they get home they start their Windows machine and would never think of trying say Linux.
I have of course changed to Window Maker which is fast, stable and pretty. For what we do there's no need for Gnome, or even a filemanager. I presume many of Sun's customers have the same needs, but Gnome is still way better than CDE.
Ciryon
QT costs money for other platforms. GTK is free everywhere.
Qt works properly on other platforms. GTK+ is broken everywhere except X11 (doesn't work, or is very buggy, doesn't look like a native app).
If you are going to recommend an alternative to Qt for cross-platform GUI development, you do yourself a great disservice by suggesting GTK+. Try wxWindows instead - a much better alternative than GTK+, although it does still have issues.
Whenever SUN and GNOME is brought up, there are always someone suggesting they should have used KDE instead. I'm a GNOME-user and I do not want to get into a discussion about quality here, so lets assumed that the (biased) assumption that KDE is better than GNOME is correct.*
The main issue is control. GTK+ and most GNOME-libraries are based on a LGPL-license, while Qt is based on GPL. This is all fine and dandy for free software, and this is certainly not a question of morality. Qt is free software.
For closed source development however things look different. For GTK+/GNOME you can develop closed apps without problems, with Qt/KDE you have to obtain a license from Trolltech. This could be fine for SUN themselves, but:
SUN would not like to be held totally at ransom by Trolltech for all third-party developers. If Trolltech wanted to, they could cease giving out commercial licenses for the SUN Solaris platform at ANY TIME. Do you think any OS-developer would be boneheaded enough to let someone else control the platform? Do you think Microsoft would form the next Windows using Qt?`
The question for SUN is:
"Do we use a platform that is in direct control by another company for third-party development, or do we use a platform that is not?"
This is an easy question to answer wether or not you like KDE or GNOME better.
(*) It might be. I like GNOME better, but this might be my biased opinion. I just wanted to state that this was irrelevant.