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Interview With Ximian's Nat Friedman

Posted by timothy on from the dances-with-monkeys dept.

Sheepish writes "OSNews features a long and interesting interview with Nat Friedman, of Ximian fame. Nat tells all and talks about the upcoming Ximian Desktop 2 and its differences from Gnome 2, the difficulties of developing the MS Exchange Connector, Linux as a desktop, Mono and plans for Gnome integration, the hundrends of OpenOffice.org changes made to make OOo like a Gnome2 app, and how Ximian feels... about Apple's business. Four screenshots of Ximian Desktop 2 are included too."

16 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Most scary Ximian OOo change by twener · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Quote: "- Uses MSFT file formats by default, reflecting the reality of most of the documents you will receive. No longer tells you you're about to lose all your data when you save in an MSFT format. "

    1. Re:Most scary Ximian OOo change by El+Pollo+Loco · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I dunno, it could go either way. When OO does become more widespread, and MS does change the format substantially, then Ximian could always say that it was microsoft screwing up the format. That would just piss off a lot of customers. But on the other hand, if the OO users see the office users still using them perfectly, it could drive them away.

    2. Re:Most scary Ximian OOo change by rgmoore · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You haven't been paying very close attention, have you? One of the biggest complaints about Microsoft file formats is that they seem to change with every version of the software, and the new versions always default to saving things in the newest format. This causes problems because people who have the newer version of the software send out files that users of older versions can't read without upgrading. Meanwhile, the new version can still read files from the older versions, so there's no trouble accessing your old documents. That makes it easy to upgrade and hard to avoid upgrading.

      Some of the file format incompatibility is natural. After all, if there are new features in the software they may require new features in the file format to support them. At the same time, though, it should be possible to make file formats so that they remain readable by older versions of the software so long as they don't incorporate any new features. I thought that one of the attractive features of XML formats is that they're supposed to behave this way very easily. That MS makes no effort to do this, or to automatically save in the oldest format that will support all features used in the document, is a sign that they're using file format incompatibility as a way of forcing upgrades.

      --

      There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.

  2. they must read slashdot by adamruck · · Score: 1, Interesting

    One of the big problems we solved was the printing UI. Using CUPS as the backend, most printers are now automatically detected and configured, even if they're on the network. We also added a simple printer configuration wizard. Configured Printers show up in your file manager and can be easily reconfigured to change things like paper sizes, using a familiar interface. Small things matter: your printer jobs appear on the panel until they are done, so you know when to pick up the results. Large things matter too: when printing from an application, just click on the printer you want to print to. For most people, this solves the Linux printing problem pretty well.

    they must have read the artice on cups that was just posted a little while ago

    --
    Selling software wont make you money, selling a service will.
  3. I'm salivating by esconsult1 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The reason why I bought an iBook to admin my Linux servers was because of immature user interfaces.

    I was left salivating after viewing the screenshots and reading about the far reaching changes that were made, especially integrating OpenOffice with the rest of the desktop.

    And they're looking into migrating several hundred thousand desktops, especially in Europe. Damn!

    Goodbye Bluecurve, Hello Ximian Desktop!

    --

    Newsfollow.com

  4. No Slackware download? by TheDefunctMunky · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why is Ximian not supporting Slack?

  5. Ximian Desktop on Red Hat? by Chicane-UK · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well I gotta be honest and say.. from the shots I have seen, and from what I have read, I can't really see what the Ximian Desktop offers Red Hat users over the superb BlueCurve front end on the most recent versions.

    Antialiasing, clean & well organised style, custom icons, and specially developed management tools. I really really rate what Red Hat have done, and I could never see myself paying for something like Ximian Desktop to replace BlueCurve.

    --
    "Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
    1. Re:Ximian Desktop on Red Hat? by MS_is_the_best · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When the first Ximian Desktop was released it was certainly better than Redhat's Gnome. With XD2, compared to Redhat 9, I think the difference is smaller.

      Nevertheless I still like what Ximian does. Their Open Office and Gnome patches are still good. I will just wait for Redhat to include them. This because running a distro and Ximian Desktop and upgrading packages from different sources gave me a lot of nasty problems in the past (Redhat explicitly tells to uninstall Ximian in their release notes). However I do not know how that will be with this release...

      If you read the interview it was clear that the main advantage for using Ximian will not be for the home user, but for large corporations. Better application management/more consistency and real user problems solving.

      Nevertheless I think Ximian is a nice open source company, providing the communuity with good patches and Evolution and help adoption of linux. So props to them anyway!

  6. Rock on, Ximian... by rainmanjag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's kinda strange... OSS with it's release-early-release-often idea almost makes it seem like improvements come so slowly, because they flow in a discrete trickle rather than the major leaps that come much further apart (emphasis on "seem")... Ximian's been working behind a black curtain for so long, it makes XD2 seem like such a gargantuan improvement...

    Though significantly delayed, XD2 was released when Ximian got everything right... and they have... finally I have a desktop environment that I can proud to show to my consulting customers as a viable option...

    -jag

    --
    http://starboard.flowtheory.net/
  7. No mention of when the source release of XD2. by mgpeter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully the week of the June 9, they will also release the complete source code to everything they use to build XD2.

    I have 1 Gentoo system at home and 2 Built from scratch machines, and it would be soooo cool to have a ebuild for Gentoo, or at least a Garnome type build script. Especially for their OpenOffice.org version.

    After reading this interview I really Can't wait.... Even tried their ftp site, but the XD2 directory is not browseable by an Anonymous Coward!

  8. Just wondering... by ElGuapoGolf · · Score: 4, Interesting



    Just wondering, but has Ximian made a KDE version of their new industrial theme?

    Ya see, the beauty of the KDE/Gnome thing is that some KDE apps you can't live without, and some Gnome/GTK apps you can't live without. Gaim and K3b/Kmail spring to mind right off the bat.

    I like KDE themes like QTCurve and Keramik/Geramik because it makes the GTK/Gnome/KDE applications look the same. If using this Ximian desktop means that my KDE apps will look out of place, then it doesn't really seem that appealing.

    A theme like this seems like it'd be simple to do, so I'd be very curious to see if Ximian has really done a complete job of it.

    1. Re:Just wondering... by apachetoolbox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ximian is a WHOLE lot more then just a theme. its an entire gnome distribution with a ton of apps. redcarpet alone makes ximian worth it.

  9. OSX by minus_273 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With all due respect, I strongly disagree with what he says about OSX. I say this because it justy so happens i switched to OSX yesterday. Ive used Linux for years and used gnome, window maker and finallys ettled with kde 3.1. It was so annoying doing all of thw software updates all the time (new GLibc, new libpng, new qt aaagh!) that i swallowed my pride and looked into OSX.
    guess what? I got a G3 266 mhz 256 mb ram 4 gig hdd for $100 off ebay. hook that to my vga monitor with an adapter ($10) and get jaguar wt my univ store for $69 and i have spent $180 on a new OSX desktop and $20 for teh shipping total $200.
    One day, just one day and i have no desire to even use linux on my desktop anymore. The consitency of the interface, commercial softweare support (Office, explorer etc) and the ability to use X and all my favorite linux apps with fink. And bet of all no RPM hell, no new library or dependecy almost everyday.
    What really pissed me off was when the new version of some software that is 2megs or so (say gaim) requires a new perl , gtk, glibc and X windows! sheesh. it was so hard to keep the same desktop (mandrak 9.0 in my case) since the stuff would be outdates so quickly. Even if iam a CS major.. i dont like constaly updatiung my OS for every new app and no i dont want to compile everything
    That is why i switched and that is thereality of using linux . The biggest reson why people will still use windows --linux is fucking hard to use and maintain on the desktop.

    --
    The war with islam is a war on the beast
    The war on terror is a war for peace
  10. Re:Value Proposition? by Jellybob · · Score: 2, Interesting
    With Windows I get support for almost every application under the sun, gaming support.


    From reading the article (for once, I actually did) it seems like Ximian are aiming at the corporate market, rather than home users. Corporates couldn't care less about gaming support, since if you're on one of their machines, you're not being paid to play games.

    With Ximian, I get what? Something for free? Is that enough to make me up and change my desktop?


    With Ximian you get a consistant desktop, with an office suite that's very usable - I work for a charity that does basic computer training, and we're the process of moving from MS Office to Open Office (hacked to look like as much like MS as we can), arguably the best PIM for Linux, and for the larger types software distribution from a central location.

    I'll certainly be taking a look at XD2 once it's released.
  11. Miguel admited to wanting a job at Microsoft by Quietti · · Score: 2, Interesting
    His story goes like this: poor Latino programmer wanting a job at Microsoft but without a chance of landing one spots this thing called Linux and decides to proove his mettle by coding for that. Fast forward a few years later and he's doing an OSS clone of .Net and getting invited by said Microsoft to discuss compatibility issues. What if Microsoft had real reasons for licensing UNIX?

    While Miguel seems to have developped into a fine programmer, I cannot help but feel very uneasy about someone whose dream once was to work for Microsoft actually leading one of the two main desktop efforts on Linux. Already, the gconf system reaks of Windows register...

    --
    Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
  12. KDE sort of "looks" like Windows by TinCanFury · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Also, KDE sort of "looks" like Windows, which people frequently find confusing, since it implies that it will act exactly like Windows, which it doesn't
    wait, is he saying gnome looks less like Windows than KDE does? Looking at the screenshots of XD2 in the article, it looks just as much like Windows as KDE does. OK, so the default puts the K task bar on the bottom like windows, but I have mine at the top of my screen, and I have a running apps bar at the bottom too.

    As far as options, the thing that pisses me off about Gnome is that I can't or its very difficult to change settings, which just pisses me off and I log back into KDE.

    Plus, whats up with Gnome's file save/open box? That thing needed work 3 years ago...

    That said, XD1 was awesome, and I'm definitly going to give XD2 a try, as soon as they have a Mandrake build.