KDE & Gnome Usability Engineers Interviewed

Gentu writes "After the recent flamewar between the KDE and Gnome user camps, OSNews brings together the most influencial KDE and Gnome usability engineers to talk about how they will be able to overcome a number of obstacles in order to 'unify' KDE and Gnome in ways that could bring to the Unix desktop an easy to use, integrated and fully interoperated DE to better compete with the commercial alternatives. Waldo from SuSE and Havoc from Red Hat are taking part to the interview, and also Aaron, the head of KDE's usability."

Comments

Re:Integration across the desktop

[IamTheRealMike]

If Havoc and Waldo are serious about integration then this problem will have to be addressed in earnest. I do not want to see KDE come down a level in technology just so that GNOME apps can integrate into KDE.

The real problem that needs to be addressed in earnest is the idea that C++ and KDE are fundamentall superior to GObject C/GNOME. While certain KDE developers persist in having a "KDE is perfect, GNOME is teh suck" attitude, the biggest barrier to integration is attitude, not technology.

I am sick of this...

[terraformer]

Instead of getting usability "experts" together to moderate a supposed flamewar and make KDE and GNOME clones of each other and ultimately every other OS in existence, why don't they get these so called experts to suggest how these interfaces can be enhanced, in their own way, and *gasp* even contribute a few patches to the cause. Yeah, OSS has some pretty wretched interfaces but there is a great deal of innovation occuring as well and if someone with true experience in the realm of GUIs could harness and direct some of this innovation some amazing things could probably occur. The Mickeysoft way of doing things is not working for anyone over a 65 IQ and Apple is to artsy for many folks so there is a clear market to serve hear. I can even imagine many would think that KDE and GNOME *are* serving that market and with a little more time may really have some polished interfaces. Things *have* gotten better and they will continue to as time moves on. Development is an iterative process.
</rant>