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OSDL to Bridge GNOME and KDE

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the one-api-to-rule-them-all dept.

Trax88 writes "Open Source Development Labs is previewing work that will attempt to make life easier for software companies by bridging GNOME and KDE. The effort, called Portland Project, began showing its first software tools on in conjunction with this week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. Using them, a software company can write a single software package that works using either of the prevailing graphical interfaces. Working with Freedesktop.org on unifying interface issues, they plan to release a beta version of the software in May and version 1.0 in June. Ultimately, advocates hope that it will be part of a larger but separate effort called Linux Standard Base, which is designed to make the operating system easier for software companies to use."

6 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Rumor has it... by Giant+Ape+Skeleton · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that the hybrid desktop will be gnown as Knome :)

    --
    The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
  2. But... by tetabiate · · Score: 5, Informative

    The benevolent dictator said:

    "I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.

    This "users are idiots, and are confused by functionality" mentality of
    Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will
    use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long
    since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.

    Please, just tell people to use KDE."

  3. Gnome Logo on Slashdot by anandpur · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi all,

    Please consider this email a formal request from the GNOME Foundation.

    We, being the GNOME Foundation, as well as many GNOME Foundation members and
    contributors to the project, have contacted you numerous times over the last
    four years regarding the use of the old GNOME logo on Slashdot. We've posted
    comments on Slashdot stories covering GNOME. We've been very nice about it.

    Please update the icon used for GNOME stories on Slashdot. We have used this
    logo since 2002, when GNOME 2.0 was released. It has been a *very long* time
    since the marble foot logo represented our project. We're now at GNOME 2.14,
    so we've shipped seven releases since the new logo was adopted. In that time
    you have posted over 120 articles in the GNOME category on Slashdot.

    We'd really appreciate it if you updated the icon. It may not be a big deal
    to you guys, but our logo is a mark of pride for our project. We'd like to
    see it used.

    Thanks,

    - Jeff

    From: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/200 6-March/msg00002.html
    http://blogs.gnome.org/view/jamesh/2006/03/20/0
    http://www.gnome.org/~jdub/random/logo/

  4. What's Next by Sexy+Commando · · Score: 5, Funny

    vi and emacs?

  5. Re:Merge ? by tylers · · Score: 5, Informative

    His comment actually makes perfect sense. He speaks of the Firefox "File -> Save Page As..." and "File -> Open File..." dialogs, which are _really_ ugly and nonfunctional. Especially the Save Page As dialog. There is no way, for example, to see a list of files which includes sizes. The GIMP has the same ugly and nonfunctional save/open interfaces.

    If I didn't like Firefox so much more than Konqueror, I'd switch myself. I hate the dialogs. The KDE versions are _much_ better, and I say this as a Fluxbox user who has spent a lot of time in both gnome and KDE.

    --Tyler

  6. Real problem is a single set of guidelines by wysiwia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Because the real problem is not so much the used framework but to use a single set of guidelines. The main obstacle of the Linux desktop is the usability, the look&feel of the applications. If one just uses 2 different applications on Linux, one most likely has to learn 2 different ways how to work with. If one uses 10 different application one doesn't have to learn 10 different ways but quite possible 5 to 7.

    So I created wyoGuide (http://wyoguide.sf.net/) exactly for this, to finally have a single set of guidelines. And I designed wyoGuide to be cross-platform guidelines since no serious developer codes for a single platform these days. wyoGuide can and should be used on any platform with any framework and any language. Sure I do provide sample code written in C++ with wxWidgets but I'd love to put up others sample code as well. So far nobody familiar with other's framework volunteered.

    To stress this point again, the Linux desktop won't become a success unless it can't be agreed on this single set of guidelines. It's possible that everybody sits together and designs yet another set but the outcome won't be much different than wyoGuide. On the other side wyoGuide is still work in progress and I'm open to any suggestion to make it more suitable for anybody.

    If somebody doesn't believe me just read the LXer article here (http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/54009/index. html) and follow the links to the sources. Or go and read the guidelines themselves at http://wyoguide.sourceforge.net/guidelines/content .html.

    What I'm curious about is how the Portland project handles this info, the knew it since December 2005 (http://lists.osdl.org/pipermail/desktop_architect s/2005-December/000349.html), they seems to already have forgotten. I've also informed Novell and posted it to LinuxQuestions, almost no reaction. So what else can I do?

    O. Wyss

    --
    See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html