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Mystery Donor Pledges $1 Million To The GNOME Foundation (betanews.com)

Brian Fagioli, writing for BetaNews: This week, The GNOME Foundation made a shocking revelation: a mystery donor has pledged $1 million dollars. We don't know who is promising the money -- it could be a rich man or woman, but more likely -- and this is pure speculation -- it is probably a company that benefits from GNOME, such as Red Hat or Canonical.

"An anonymous donor has pledged to donate up to $1,000,000 over the next two years, some of which will be matching funds. The GNOME Foundation is grateful for this donation and plans on using these funds to increase staff to streamline operations and to grow its support of the GNOME Project and the surrounding ecosystem. While the GNOME Foundation has maintained its position as a proponent of the GNOME Project, growth has been limited. With these funds, the GNOME Foundation will be able to expand and lead in the free software space," says The GNOME Foundation.

150 comments

  1. Trump will die in prison a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump will die in prison a traitor next to his bitch beta traitor sons and worthless attorneys.

    1. Re: Trump will die in prison a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh look middle school student post message retread. Please record your head exploding when it doesn't occur.

      Geekpoet

    2. Re:Trump will die in prison a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      rich people don't go to prison, you know that.

    3. Re:Trump will die in prison a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pence is worse.

  2. hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm.

    $1M, at 500k/year, and 'increasing staff' seems like it will get burned through rather quick. A couple of devs, full time per year, will eat that cash up easily.

    Of course, two devs can get a lot done.. so, who knows.

    1. Re:hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Gnome will not hire developers, just those idiot designer hipsters. They will not stop removing features until all the functionality is gone and screen has just plain white content.

    2. Re:hmm by zwarte+piet · · Score: 1

      Apple white with a smile.

  3. Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    GNOME devs have their heads deeper up their own asses than pretty much any project in the history of software development.

    1. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hi, ac. meet mozilla... mozilla, meet ac.

    2. Re:Please don't encourage them by brickhouse98 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Knew it wouldn't take long for some douche to come in and blast Gnome. Somehow they do what every other DE does (ie. design what they want) yet take the most flack for it, not least of all from some AC.

    3. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's because they killed the best desktop environment ever, Gnome 2, and at the same time made app the Gnome Apps suck, and at the same time turned GTK3 from being the coolest toolkit with the best tech, gobject-introspection, into an unstable API no one can trust.

      Add SystemD and PulseAudio to it, and I want everyone working for RedHat to die, or at least have all their fingers broken.

    4. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not the original AC, but kindly go fuck yourself.

      Some of us are old enough to remember The CADT Model, devised in 2003 (in the aftermath of switching from GNOME 1.4 to 2.0). Nothing has fucking changed. I bet you they closed a shitload of bugs too when they switched to GNOME 3. Moneyquote:

      It hardly seems worth even having a bug system if the frequency of from-scratch rewrites always outstrips the pace of bug fixing. Why not be honest and resign yourself to the fact that version 0.8 is followed by version 0.8, which is then followed by version 0.8?

      Also note that most software, commercial and open source suffers from this. The exception to the rule seems to be in house code. I've seen 30 year old codebases chugging along nicely. Hell, DOSBox is still popular for a reason. FORTRAN refuses to die for the same reason.

    5. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      when your time is worthless, doing multiple from-scratch rewrites costs nothing. when your time costs $50/hr, doing a from-scratch rewrite is like putting your money in a pile and lighting it on fire.

    6. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsnails · · Score: 1

      They killed a good one. Not the best. KDE is/was the best.

    7. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They didn't kill anything. You can use Gnome 2 if you want. Or better yet fork/maintain Gnome 2, if you wish to.

      I'm speaking as KDE user.

    8. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gnome3, should be 'nuf sed. But it isn't. They persist. For example gedit and gthumb _were_ excellent until a few releases ago. I was seriously hooked on gthumb as it came very close to replacing irfanview for me. Instead of filling in the missing 2% of features, the Gnome dev(il)s made some whack-job on the UI, broke functionality, introduced several regressions so the application deviated from the documentation, etc, etc, etc. Sigh. As for gedit, try opening a large text file - maybe some chunky CSV file of several thousand lines. Scroll to the very bottom. In many (maybe not _all_) distros, the last line can be accessed but not displayed. But instead of fixing this bug, we play UI destruction games and "bauhaus design principles" or some such magic-mushroom-smoking horse-hooey.

      Look, it's wonderful someone is giving a million bucks to Linux (ok, Linux related projects). If I won one of these pesky Lottery things, I would donate a chunk to Linux and a few projects too. But Gnome? Seriously?

    9. Re: Please don't encourage them by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Gnome would benefit from spending the money to hire people to fix bugs. It isn't so much the design that is bad, it's the weird bugs and awkward work flows that show up because no one really testef their stuff well. It's jusy quirky. Note that it's still better than the adfest Windows has become.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    10. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've watched my bug reports get ignored for five years, and then closed because the program they were filed against was replaced with something else. (That "something else", by the way, did not bother to fix my bug either.)

      I just yesterday got an e-mail that a bug report I filed thirteen years ago has been migrated to a new bug tracker.

      I had completely forgotten that I had filed that report. I haven't used the program in question (or anything GNOME) in a decade.

      Yes, there is something wrong with GNOME and its developers.

      (I'm not the GP.)

    11. Re:Please don't encourage them by OneAhead · · Score: 1

      Or better yet fork/maintain Gnome 2, if you wish to.

      I'm speaking as KDE user.

      It shows.

    12. Re: Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/22zaa3/the_gnome_foundation_spent_all_their_money_on/

    13. Re:Please don't encourage them by houghi · · Score: 1

      I use XFCE, because each time you run GNOME, they kill a kitten and each time you run KDE they kill a puppy. Fact!

      Seriosuly. I remember the time I was able to run anything I liked and not have everything installed twice. It should not matter if I runKDE, Gnome, XFCE, Whatever programs on any desktop I desire. The reason I use XFCE is becuase it needs the least of tweaking to get it how I like it the most (although still not perfect)

      You used to have different programs for different things. Now you have a kernel, that tries to do everything, running a bootloader, that tries to do everything, so I can launch a desktop launcher that tries to do everything, so I can see a desktop, that tries to do everything, so I can run a browser, that tries to do everything to visit a webpage that tries to do everything.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    14. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsie · · Score: 1

      Killed is a strong word. I run Ubuntu Mate on my laptop at home without any issues. Popular software doesn't die easily. If it's good enough people will pick it up.

    15. Re:Please don't encourage them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because they killed the best desktop environment ever, Gnome 2,

      So how come I'm running a better, faster, nicer looking version of Gnome 2, called MATE right now?

    16. Re:Please don't encourage them by doom · · Score: 1

      Speaking of which, does anyone know a good way to revert libgtk? I'd like my old scrollbars back in firefox. And the old File-Save dialog was a hell of a lot better...

      I was wondering if firefox under MATE might work better.

    17. Re:Please don't encourage them by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      KDE is/was the best.

      Yah. They almost killed it with 4.0 but it bounced back and is the best again, including vs Windows and OS/X. Even Kmail kinda works again, RIP.

      Used Ark for the first time (always command lined that tell yesterday) and was blown away how smooth it is. There are just an endless number of nice surprises like that in KDE if you go explore. Mostly I just ignore everything fancy and use the basics, which are great.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    18. Re: Please don't encourage them by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Gnome would benefit from spending the money to hire people to fix bugs.

      Quickest way is, probably, port it to Qt.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    19. Re: Please don't encourage them by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Ouch, that's some tough love, right there.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    20. Re:Please don't encourage them by johnsnails · · Score: 1

      Agree

  4. transparency by clangerbanger · · Score: 0

    so much for open source. or is a systemd related ransom/protection payment?

    1. Re:transparency by HanzoSpam · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If if was Red Hat the donated the money, I can understand why it was anonymous. After what they did to us with systemd, there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

      --

      Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
    2. Re:transparency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

      No there wouldn’t. You cucks would bend over and take it up the poop shoot and then ask for more.

    3. Re:transparency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After what they did to us with systemd, there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

      No there wouldn't. Because after all the fantastical "we'll switch to BSD" angry nonsense the result was that instead of doing that or even forking the upstream and getting out from under RedHat's domination of the majority of the Linux community the result was to just STFU and accept systemd. Proof that RedHat OWNS the desktop Linux community (the vast majority of it anyway, inbefore the 'oh i use slackware' or 'oh i use gentoo').

    4. Re:transparency by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

      After what they did to us with systemd, there would probably be riots in the gnome user community.

      No there wouldn't. Because after all the fantastical "we'll switch to BSD" angry nonsense the result was that instead of doing that or even forking the upstream and getting out from under RedHat's domination of the majority of the Linux community the result was to just STFU and accept systemd. Proof that RedHat OWNS the desktop Linux community (the vast majority of it anyway, inbefore the 'oh i use slackware' or 'oh i use gentoo').

      Red Hat OWNS the Linux desktop? I don't think so. Currently it ranks 50 on distrowatch. Even Fedora is in 8th place, behind Debian, Ubuntu, and others.

      And speaking of Debian and Ubuntu, they also adopted systemd, after Fedora was the first to do so. Whatever you think of systemd, you can't just blame Red Hat for it.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    5. Re:transparency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It isn't about how much of the market they have, it is about the influence they have.. For all half-baked systemd's flaws and instabilities RedHat has so much influence in the Linux community that Debian (and all its downstream distributions) adopted it (and things like PulseAudio) exclusively anyway.

    6. Re: transparency by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      What the hell are you babbling on about? This is in no way related to the open source nature / status of the code.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    7. Re: transparency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, without transparency, we don't know what the motive of the donor. If it's Apple, Microsoft, or Red Hat, we know their ulterior motives and Gnome would go down in flames for collaborating with the destroyers.

      Doesn't matter, I guess. Not a penny of this money will be spent on coding when their is so much social activism that needs to be funded!

  5. The future of gnome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard that the gnome UI has devolved into a single large button labelled "NO" but I can't say if that's true. You know, so as not to confuse the users. The last time I looked at gnome it was headed in that direction.

  6. It was me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank me you stupid fucks!

    1. Re:It was me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      for what?

    2. Re: It was me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For donating a million dollars you fucking Trump supporter

  7. Should pay for a resurrection of Gnome 1. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before the HIG, spatial file manager, shell, disabling of double click to launch executables and other Gnome groans. Despite given head starts by Microsoft with Me, Vista, 8 and 10 Gnome is still a major reason we haven’t had a year of the Linux desktop in the 20 years Gnome has existed.

  8. we're burning nazi faggots. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get the ovens ready, we're going to have a lot of suicidal Trumpfags to burn once he dies in prison a traitor.

    1. Re: we're burning nazi faggots. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Das racist!

  9. Glad its GNOME and not KDE by rojash · · Score: 1

    Couldn't ever get used to the weird French ways of KDE

    1. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      KDE is German, not French, you insensitive clod.

    2. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by rojash · · Score: 0

      Same same EUR weirdness, love

    3. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one cares eurosissy. You’re all worthless faggots no matter which brand of eurofaggotry you subscribe to.

    4. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, the donation was made in USD not EUR. Don't mix up your currencies.

    5. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Teun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It seems we use our computer differently and the advantage of Linux is we both find what we like.
      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      The biggest problem of Gnome is it is not a system but a whole bunch of loosely connected (or not!) applications.
      The desktop sucks at calling those applications and looks bad without options to reconfigure it.
      side from the configurability one of the biggest advantages of KDE Plasma is the file manager Dolphin, it is based on good old Konquerer but has more useful plug-ins.

      Regretfully no amount of money can make Gnome catch up, it was broken from the start.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    6. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      And yet to fail to provide any. It’s almost as if you have no proof of anything.

    7. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Raphael · · Score: 1

      There is fairly good proof KDE is the more complete and better thought out desktop environment.

      You are a rather successful troll because you comment was quickly moderated to "+5 Interesting" although it is just a rant without substance. Congratulations for that!

      Regretfully no amount of money can make Gnome catch up, it was broken from the start.

      And of course you have a proof of that as well?

      --
      -Raphaël
    8. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by rojash · · Score: 1

      I think my wife would love KDE.

    9. Re:Glad its GNOME and not KDE by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      The biggest problem of Gnome is it is not a system but a whole bunch of loosely connected (or not!) applications.

      The biggest problem with Gnome (besides the developers) is, it's written in C. Its libraries are written in C. C that is trying to be object oriented and just ends up being a mess because, you know, C does not have classes. It can try to have classes, just as a dog can pretend to walk on its hind feet like a human, but kids are not fooled.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  10. It was Microsoft. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you look at the strings attached to the donation, it should be obvious what's going on here.

    Gnome 4 needs to be the Gnome 3 of Gnome 3s! We want a user experience so new, bold and exciting that nobody will believe it! Not just out of the box but in a different galaxy as the box! Also, all applications must be fully usable on smartwatches!

    But hey, I for one welcome our open source sniff-and-spit smartwatches! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:It was Microsoft. by Tranzistors · · Score: 1

      I did not find the quote in the article. Source, please?

    2. Re: It was Microsoft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, what? That's an actual quote?

    3. Re:It was Microsoft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally! Windows 10 will have a somewhat usable desktop environment.

  11. Probably Puting by Rashkae · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably Putin, trying to destabilize the Free Software movement and keeping the desktop fragmentation Gnome created (or, at least, greatly escalated) going.)

    1. Re:Probably Puting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would Putin destabilize the Free Software movement by giving it money, when he could send the devs Polonium butt-plugs instead?

    2. Re: Probably Puting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ironically polonium butt-plug is the code name for the next windows 10 update

  12. See a psychologist immediately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are mentally ill and need clinical help.

    1. Re:See a psychologist immediately by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      You are mentally ill and need clinical help.

      This.

      Y'know, when I look at the deranged crap on this thread, I kind of miss the "you are all cows" posts.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  13. A Million ain't what it used to be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    <dr evil>One Million Dollars</dr evil>

    Don't spend it all in one place

    1. Re:A Million ain't what it used to be by renegadesx · · Score: 1

      A million dollars wont even get you a shitty dewlling you can only barely call a house in Sydney, Australia. It's insane.

      --
      Make SELinux enforcing again!
  14. See a prison chaplain immediately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump's going to die a traitor in Florence, Kansas. You should be there to fuck his corpse if you're so interested.

    1. Re:See a prison chaplain immediately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nobody is interested in the dreams of the mentally ill people like you

      all you do is push more people to support trump by showing just how retarded the anti trumpers are

  15. Better solution: Charity Share Brokerage by shanen · · Score: 1

    More general solution: Use a CSB (Charity Share Brokerage). People who want to use GNOME would be able to buy charity shares in related projects. Some projects might develop new features, others might pay for ongoing costs for the next budget period, other projects would provide support, and so on. If lots of people want to donate to GNOME, then it will flourish, but if not, then it will survive to the degree that some people are willing to cover the costs.

    This might remind you of Kickstarter, but it's actually an older idea that has evolved over the years. There are two major differences: One is a focus on accountability for the projects, with every proposal including the success criteria, and another is elimination of the jackpot effect. When a project gets enough funding, that's it. If there is extra enthusiasm for the project it should be transferred to the next step or a related project (rather than cause replanning of the current project).

    Latest wrinkle involves the question "Who shall assess those selfsame projects?" The problem is that the CSB has a vested interest in successful projects. The CSB's reputation is linked to successful projects, even though the CSB needs to be honest about the ones that don't do so well (so the CSB can learn to make future projects better). The donors also have a vested interest in declaring their own projects successful. Therefore I think the assessment should include two additional panels of judges:

    (1) Some people who read the original project proposal, but who decided not to donate to it. The CSB can recruit them with a closing option such as "I do not want to donate to this project, but I'm interested in the outcome."

    (2) Some random people who have never heard of the project. Rather than details on the three most obvious pools, let me just close with my usual ADSAuPR, atAJG.

    Whoops, almost forgot the main link to the original story: Large donors would be allowed to match charity shares on projects they want to support. In this case, the anonymous donor's big donation would be divided into small shares to match individual donations. I think the normal price of a charity share should be around $10 (but it should still be the individual donor's choice about whose matching donation is acceptable or not).

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  16. speculation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would Red Hat or Canonical donate anonymously? They both already public give financial support to GNOME ( https://www.gnome.org/foundation/ ) and pay developers to work on GNOME.

  17. trip the right fandangoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    how about making a distribution that plays ALL multimedia files? we'd even pay for that, although it should be free like us hobbyists were? peace on stasians..

  18. I could never do that by skoskav · · Score: 2

    I'd be terrified that they'd spend it all on sweets and comic books. I would at least demand some old bugs to be fixed.

    1. Re:I could never do that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally, I'd demand that they revert Gnome 3.

    2. Re:I could never do that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would demand some new bugs be added.
        - the NSA

    3. Re:I could never do that by HyperQuantum · · Score: 1

      I'd be terrified that they'd spend it all on sweets and comic books

      Or on 'diversity' projects.

      --
      I am not really here right now.
    4. Re:I could never do that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally, I'd demand that they revert Gnome 3.

      Why? Because choice is bad? Currently you can choose supported Gnome 2 a.k.a MATE or Gnome 3 if you prefer it. What's bad about that?

  19. Trump taught you how to suck cock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another Trump fag with getting fucked up the ass on his mind again. #Prison is coming traitors

    1. Re:Trump taught you how to suck cock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Projection much?

  20. Microsoft? by whoever57 · · Score: 2

    Look at what Gnome3 has done to fracture the user base.

    Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:Microsoft? by StormReaver · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

      Microsoft doesn't need to do a whole lot to sabotage GNOME or KDE, as both desktops are cutting off their own noses to spite their respective faces. GNOME has always been largely unusable and so ugly that even its mother could be forgiven for wanting to drop it into an exploding volcano.

      KDE's decline began with the stagnation of the IO Slave architecture, the rise of Windows Explorer's bastard child, Dolphin, and the neglect of one of the world's best file managers, Konqueror. Since most of KDE's main features have been either neglected or mostly gutted, it really no longer matters which foundation gets the donation. At this point, they have already failed as a usable desktop (GNOME), or are well on the way to failing (KDE).

    2. Re:Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use KDE daily as my workstation desktop and it works great. I certainly have less complaints using it than I do when I'm stuck on Windows. :)

    3. Re:Microsoft? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Look at what Gnome3 has done to fracture the user base.

      And they managed to do that all on their own, no reason to shake things up.

      Microsoft benefits from more changes in Gnome.

      It really just sounds like you're butthurt that this donation didn't go to the project of your choice and you're trying to come up with a way to make it seem like a bad thing. If it's a bad project and a large donation kills it off faster then great, if it's a bad project and a large donation improves it then that's great too.

    4. Re:Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dolphin is Windows Explorer's bastard child? Which file manager that also has Internet browser functionality (just like Windows Explorer), Dolphin or Konqueror?

      Coupling file manager and Internet browser is stupid.

    5. Re:Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EVERY application should be a plugin to the file manager.

    6. Re:Microsoft? by houghi · · Score: 1

      The best filemanager is still 'mc'. Works in KDE, Gnome, XFCE, CLI, Windowmaker, Enlightenment and whatever else you want to run it on.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    7. Re:Microsoft? by doom · · Score: 1

      dired, you posers.

  21. Maybe now... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... single-click becomes possible?

    Come on folks, it's dumb to keep saying it can't be done right -- KDE has been doing it since eons!

  22. Given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2 by HiThere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I suspect the donation is by Microsoft or Apple, given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2. There's also the increasing monolithic spread of systemd, and various other trends that I find "equally encouraging". Such as adaptations to facilitate running Linux as a subsystem under MSWindows.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    1. Re:Given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2 by nonicknameavailable · · Score: 1

      Gnome developers are removing functions after functions soon gnome shell is going to be a empty page

      --
      Mendacem Memorem Esse Oportet
    2. Re:Given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect the donation is by Microsoft or Apple, given the way Gnome3 has developed from Gnome2. There's also the increasing monolithic spread of systemd, and various other trends that I find "equally encouraging".

      Seems unlikely for a couple of reasons, firstly all of that happened long before this donation, the GNOME community is what created the abhorrent GNOME3 and embraced systemd. Secondly if this was to influence development they would actually want something specific from the GNOME community. If you wanted to really fuck up GNOME then leave it to the community, they've proven they can do a fine job of that all on their own as you already pointed out.

  23. Re: Nazis are faggots. Mike Pence will suck you o by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Talk tough baby girl, it still won't make the moans of your wife while the bull is in her bedroom go away.

  24. The problem with Gnome is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that it's getting older and older, because it staunchly refuses to take cues from other systems and current UI design to stay modern. Instead it tries it hardest to preserve itself and be a Linux desktop for Linux users, rather than a modern system for all users.

    1. Re:The problem with Gnome is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the problem is the opposite. Gnome 3 is hated because it follows the "modern" nonsensical UI

  25. You really want to fuck a traitor's corpse so bad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't get it, what is it about the bloated white fatass carcass of America's biggest-ever traitor that appeals to you Trumpy faggots sexually? Is it the see-thru tennis shorts, the complete lack of athleticism? The treason?

    Just remember to put the shotgun in your bitch mouth rather than under the chin. *(You GOP traitor faggots tend to have huge blubbery jowels.)

  26. Re:Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, fuck. So, let's see, who would financially back the worst dev team in the linux world, one that does not care about users/usability etc as long as their ego is satisfied and is constantly putting obstacles in the linux world? My guess is someone not after the good of Linux.

    Microsoft pledged the 1000000 dollars.

  27. TAX DEDUCTION ??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I assume this is not a tax deduction.
    If you estimate the value of FOSS that has been given away, AND is in regular use in schools,business and gov't, then you quickly see that BILLIONS of unclaimed tax deductions have been foregone by a relatively small number of developers.
        *** Charitable giving is only a useful tool for the rich. ***

  28. The donor is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Garfield the Cat

  29. Trump will die in prison a traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trump fag about to get prison fucked, and there's nothing traitors like you can do about it. #Sad!

  30. Wont change anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It will suck badly as usual

    1. Re:Wont change anything by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Remember when they go $40 million invested into Gnome and basically just produced one theme? Nice one, but hey.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  31. For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18.04 by mugurel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope 1M is enough to fix that mess. Successfully switching between user sessions is a matter of luck; Useful panel functionality is only provided through sometimes abandoned third party extensions; For anything other than the five-or-so options in the system settings you need to resort to something like a "tweak-tool"; Then there is the wildly unnecessary "swipe up screen" that get's in your way. All in all a very bad experience. I'm switching back to 16.04 for now.

  32. it was me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ok, it was me.

  33. Re:You really want to fuck a traitor's corpse so b by Papaspud · · Score: 1

    I didn't realize how foul mouthed little girls sitting in moms basement could be, oh my! Get out your unicorn and give it a big hug......

    --
    Everything above is my opinion....YMMV
  34. they should spend it on DIVERSITY! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should spend the money to hire "women in coding" advocates, preferably trannies of color with preference given to those without legal immigration status!

  35. GNOME by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    GNOME > Trump

    Poop > Trump

  36. It's a false front. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These "anonymous" funds are just a money laundering operation by Gnome. They stole this from banks, and just need a way to make it legit. Pretty clever, I must say.

  37. $1000000 not enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not convinced even $1000000 could save that bag of bolts.... what a waste of money, better investing it in systemd alternatives....

    1. Re: $1000000 not enough by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You are clearly confused; systemd and alternatives are two different packages and both work great already.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  38. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by apoc.famine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I tried to disable the stupid swipe up to log in for a bit, then realized you could just start typing your password and it would log you in.

    It's stupid as fuck, and everyone who came up with the idea, approved it, and implemented it should be shot.

    --
    Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  39. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Being shot would be too gentle. It's time to break out the boats.

  40. Dear Anonymous Donor by imperious_rex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here's some other deserving open-source projects where $2M would have a wider benefit to the Linux community than GNOME:
    (in no particular order)
    1. Linux Mint/Cinnamon
    2. MATE
    3. GIMP
    4. Inkscape
    5. Firefox
    6. Scribus
    7. XFCE
    You're welcome.

    1. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My favorite new XFCE "feature" is that if you open the clock settings and then close it, the clock disappears.

      I mean, el oh el but it's fucking 2018. How goddamn dumb is it that this kind of thing still happens.

    2. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      8. Blender

    3. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by olau · · Score: 1

      Why? GNOME provides much of the infrastructure these projects are using? How would supporting a non-infrastructure project help the wider Linux community?

      Not disagreeing that more of these projects could need funding, perhaps except for Firefox which is funded by Mozilla. Look up their annual budget.

    4. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by imperious_rex · · Score: 1

      Good point. I often forget that GNOME and GNOME Shell are different things and I mistakenly conflate the two. GNOME is fine (more or less), but GNOME Shell 3.x is an unpleasant experience for many who prefer a more traditional desktop. You're right about Firefox/Mozilla. They're doing fine.

    5. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      8. Krita
      9. Blender
      10. Konqueror
      11. Kate
      12. Inkscape

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re:Dear Anonymous Donor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken like someone who doesn't do any serious open source work. Bugs happen. It takes serious discipline to fix this kind of stuff or catch it during extensive testing. It's not like we have a large QA department before it gets released. Users test it. Users report bugs. It's not ideal.

  41. Switched to MacOS a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux desktop is just never going to be anything but a waste of your precious time.

  42. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like they say, a fool and his money are soon parted.

  43. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    You are an idiot. We have been using far better WMs than Windows' shitty "explore" she'll for literally decades. Only an incompetent idiot would try to claim that Windows has a better desktop / WM than Gnome or KDE. In other words does Gnome suck compared to KDE? Absolutely. Does it suck compared to Windows? Give me a break. Windows is a toy OS with a WM that barely qualifies as an "also ran" in the race.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  44. Re: For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 1 by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    That is ridiculous. Stay with the current release and switch to KDE.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  45. More like by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    a company that sells Linux support as a business model? Redhat pushed systemd knowing it was untested and bad ideas so they could sell more support.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  46. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are an idiot, go back and read again. Nobody ever said Windows' window manager is superior nor does that have any impact on the desktop OS battle as evidenced by the fact that Windows 8's godawful shell still got more users than all the linux desktop distributions combined.

  47. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    Said claim was made in the first two sentences. You truly are a precious fucking idiot.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  48. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wrong again. Are you dense or just completely retarded? The term "window manager" was not used in the post at all. The term "operating system" was used, an "operating system" is not a "window manager", the fact that you clearly do not even understand that makes you completely incapable of conversing on this topic you braindead fuckwit.

  49. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only an incompetent idiot would try to claim that Windows has a better desktop / WM than Gnome or KDE.

    While that is indeed subjective, GP does not appear to have made that claim. Whether WM 'sucks' is a matter of opinion but really across the board they are unlikely to be that bad that they cause a user to switch OSes entirely.

  50. Re: Oh fuck. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry you are too stupid to understand what you read. I assume it is because you have no idea what a WM is, and don't realize that claiming the "desktop experience" is superior is, by definition, claiming the WM is superior.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  51. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Holy shit, you are one phenomenally stupid fuckwit. It boggles the mind really.

  52. Stop trolling already. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look, troll.

    There are reasons to not like Gnome.

    I don't, for one (I was with Gnome up to the beginnings of 2, back then). But it is free software, and there are alternatives.

    So (a) deal with it or (b) change it -- or (c) use an alternative. But in all three cases, say THANKS, because it is a present, and it isn't forced upon you.

  53. Where are the moderators? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good to see the comments are at the basic level of pre-pubescent teenagers. Go on say a swear word just to sound big!

  54. It's Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They want Ubuntu to be nice and pretty before they completely take it over, I mean before Canonical IPO's Ubuntu for a short while and M$ just happens to want to buy one of the most popular Linux distributions out there. Maybe put their Azure bullshit on it. Canonical is M$'s bitch people.

    1. Re:It's Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meh. If MS buy Ubuntu, I'll just run MATE on Debian instead.

  55. improve documentation for advanced users by e70838 · · Score: 1

    I am a gnome 3 user since 2013. I have installed it on the computer of my (old) mother who lives far away. For remote administration, I use wakeonlan and x11vnc through a ssh tunnel. I often also connect remotely to my personal computer. This is already more complicated since 16.04 LTS. I wonder how gnome will again make my life more complicated with 18.04. Remote connection is a family of basic scenarios that should be clearly explained.
    If I want to add support to a new file extension (like http://torvalds-family.blogspo...), where shall I start? Again a very weak documentation (or I have not found it).
    The file indexer is a nightmare (I have a big disk with many small files (like git repositories). Nothing about how to mitigate this issue in the documentation.
    I want to share the Document (and Image) directory of the main computer or the house with the 2 other ubuntu computers. What are the best solutions (I have setup nfs but everything is not smooth).
    For basic usages (usages that were common and easier 20 years ago) of an advanced user, gnome introduces a level of abstraction that needs to be documented, otherwise, we have to find half working workarounds.

    1. Re:improve documentation for advanced users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are plenty solutions for file transfers in Linux aside from nfs: sftp (or even ssh via fish protocol on Dolphin (KDE file manager)), FTP, samba. I read somewhere, there are many problems related with nfs on systemd, but this was years ago, whether this was fixed I can't confirm.

      Alternative solution for remote admin: vnc via vpn.

      I'm not Gnome user, so I don't know the details (e.g. file indexer, etc) for Gnome environment.

  56. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by johnsie · · Score: 1

    Phew!! Looks like I just saved myself 1M by entering a single apt-get install command into the terminal. Happy days!

  57. I think it is Google giving love for the material by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With Google about to launch ChromeOS with significant improvements to Android app support and more importantly, new Linux application support (yes this includes Wine/Crossover) , the value of GTK/Gnome fitting easily (with some slight tweaks/code commits ) into the carefully managed material theme used throughout ChromeOS is worth the donation.
    If a similar donation was made to Wayland, then I will be more confident in my assumption.

  58. Wasted money! by Saija · · Score: 1

    The way Gnome have managed one of the most loved and used DE out there from simple to use to be a fsking nightmare of usability and feature-cropping simply left you wonder why inject all that big money there?

    --
    Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
  59. I admit it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I did it as a drunken wager. What in holey hell did I do!?

  60. I like KDE (always have) & use it (Kubuntu 18. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: It's highly configurable, pretty stable, & works + looks very pretty via Plasma OpenGL (2 or 3.1) display!

    * I've liked it since the Linux kernel 2.2 days!

    APK

    P.S.=> It's good stuff & very easy to get used to... apk

  61. Political correctness done wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    man or woman

    Just say "person" or some other gender neutral word, if you're going to do something as cumbersome as "man or woman". It's unnatural and very annoying. And not all people associate with being male or female. It's not a binary system.

  62. Re:For sure someone who just upgraded to ubuntu 18 by doom · · Score: 1

    I hope 1M is enough to fix that mess.

    I wouldn't think so-- you can look forward to more ego and "we know best" design decisions.

    You can also look forward to the "mystery" leaking just when they've gotten addicted to the sugar.

  63. Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "a shocking revelation"

    No.

    Try:

    "announced"

    This is not a shocking revelation.

    Clickbait crap, written by/for children and kiddies.

  64. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where, in this post do you see (or even infer) the terms "window manager" or "desktop experience"? I didn't write those words, I didn't imply those terms and I would be happy to clarify any misunderstanding you have about what I wrote because I do not disagree with your initial rebuttal. I do not believe that Windows' window manager is superior to Gnome or KDE at all, I agree with you on that which is why I did not write or imply what you seem to believe I did. Please point out where you think that was written or implied:

    The Linux community has always been so poor at producing a decent desktop operating system that Microsoft has never really had to worry about them, Ballmer had a minor pooping of the pants moment and called Linux a cancer 15-odd years ago but really there was never any threat to Windows' desktop dominance from Linux. The most successful consumer-facing Linux operating systems have been those where a corporation stepped in, took charge and did it their way, GNU/Linux has been eclipsed on mobile and desktop by Android and ChromeOS which did in a very brief time what the hundreds of 'shit flung at the wall' distros produced by the community couldn't do in decades and have still failed to do now... if anything they are worse now thanks to things like systemd, gnome3, pulseaudio, mir, unity, etc... produced by the rampant NIH syndrome in the "community".

    You can argue that some elements of the community have managed to finally cobble together a usable desktop OS in say, Mint, for example but it's an also-ran that isn't innovative and its success has been in copying the incumbents rather than adding real value through innovation which is why, relatively speaking, nobody uses it. As for mobile, a now very mature industry, there is nothing even close to usable. The usable FOSS community also-ran mobile OS is likely still at least a decade off.

  65. Re: Oh fuck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude he buried you and you are just exposing what a complete ignoramus you are at this point

  66. Gnome 3 is usable. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After using Gnome 3, I am addicted to it, as well as other Gnome tools. No KDE please!