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The GNOME Roadmap
glockenspieler writes "Recently on the the Gnome Foundation mailing list, Dave Camp posted a draft Gnome Roadmap for versions 2.8 and Beyond. Issues up for discussion are Mozilla/Epiphany, incorportation of peer to peer filesharing, blogging, addition of more media widgets, and many others. Time for Gnome users to weigh in on what improvements that you would like to see. If that's not enough, then there's always the the C# versus Java versus ? discussion."
Amen. Features come second when your core framework is fucked.
IMHO, MS is finally getting something right - the framework they're designing for Longhorn is goregeous. XML GUI and class definition and all the crummy header and import crap, and C# for the procedural code. Basically, C# as a scripting engine, one almost as fast as straight C. Compare that with the sluggish Python scripts other systems use.
OS coders could do this. Just because moronic Java developers converted platform agnositicism from a nice idea into ideological zealotry doesn't mean OS coders have to. GNOME has a wonderful idea with using Java.
Think of it this way: you code all your heavy lifting code in painful C and C++. Your 3d model renderrers, your window placement, etc. Then you code all the mostly event-driven procedural crap in Java. Tons of apps do this already, but with sluggish VB or Python or Perl. Instead we do it with Java, which, compared to real compiled languages is slow, but compared to a scripting language it rocks ass.
This is what Microsoft is doing with Longhorn, and its a wonderful system. Try modding Unreal Tournament to experience a game engine built along the same paradigm (albeit without the wonderful XAML concept of Longhorn) and you'll see how much of a joy this is to code with.
Regardless of all the monstrous feature creep (like giving IE a complete copy of the Firebird feature set) of Windows, the new coding framework of Longhorn has got me twitching with anticipation. Unfortunately, it looks like its up to the OS team with the shittiest track record (GNOME) to try and make a counterpoint for this.
Linux On The Desktop will be ready just in time for Windows On The Desktop With Super Fast R.A.D. Trustable Networked Operating System.
The tools are available, Longhorn is behind schedule, its not like an OS counterpart framework with an intelligent window manager couldn't be ready long before Longhorn. But I doubt it will happen.
I wish I had any mod points, because what you say are the truth, but it hurts most of the zealots to hear it.
Also, GNOME was supposed to be a small memory footprint system, but with XFree86 using 40MB, Gnome core 20MB, Nautilus 100MB and Mozilla another 100MB, you end up using 260MB for a GUI and a webbrowser! Windows XP only uses 120MB, and Windows 2000 60MB. On Windows NT 4 you could do it in 20MB, and on Windows NT 3.51 only 12MB.
But I guess thats evolution or what. I just think it is sad that Linux has taken the lead from microsoft as the resource hog.
-H
only on /. do you get your ass handed to you for minor technicalities
i say bullshit. "desktop environment" is a crock of shit that someone with too much time on their hands wanted a new term than "window manager". gnome and kde are very much window managers and they do way more than they need to
vodka, straight up, thank you!
yes, and most people like to make things more complicated than they need to be. it doesn't mean they are right, nor does "most" mean it's right either.
vodka, straight up, thank you!
When you see Epiphany you first notice all of the features that are missing. If you're like me, you'll quickly notice that you don't really miss any of those features
What I quickly noticed was that Epiphany is a damn clunky browser, nigh-well unusably so. The same is unfortunately true of almost all `alternative' web-browsers these days; firefox has its problems, but it has the advantage of actually being a nice browser. Epiphany looks more like a quick hack so that the Gnome team can check the `Got a browser' checkbox on some feature list.
Maybe the Epiphany will figure it out someday, who knows, but I'm not waiting around, and it's not clear why anyone else should either.
We live, as we dream -- alone....