"Gnome2 simply removed the option instead of fixing the behaviour (panel being above fullscreen windows [mplayer, blender, etc.] for example)."
No, the reason why they removed those options is because they *did* fix the issues. Your problem shows that you're not using a NETWM-compliant window manager. Switch to Metacity.
And where are your arguments to backup your claim? I contributed an application to the GNOME project. I did it for free. I'm not a professional. If I'm not a volunteer then what am I?
What a rediculous and incredibly arrogant statement. I am a volunteer amateur programmer! If I don't design the GUI, then who does? Or are you going to help me hire an expen$$ive UI designer for every little app I'm going to make?
"Well, speaking as a programmer who "uses" many other pieces of software...yeah, I think I do have some better ideas for many of the pieces of software I use..."
You mean ideas of how the UI can be better for yourself.
Users suggesting UI improvements are no better than programmers: they are trying to design a GUI that they themselves think is right. Both of them don't really know whether the GUI they have in mind is good for everybody else too.
I find it rediculous that Slashdotters tend to praise users over developers. Users are not magically better at making GUIs than programmers!
"Well, somewhere in my fairly generic installation of Gnome (courtesy of RH7.3), somewhere in either Gnome or Sawfish is a little drop-down knob that can control *how many options are seen* in the configurator."
And this is a bad thing. Nautilus had something similar called "user levels". They eventually removed that because it was a bad idea: - Lots of users overestimate themselves and always set the level to Advanced. - Support nightmare. - Some other stuff I can't remember.
Giving people the option to choose how many options they will see is a bad idea. It's been proven and dicussed to dead on the GNOME mailing lists.
Then how do you deal with contradicting feedback? What if users are contradicting each other? A very good example would GNOME: half of the users scream "more options! more options!" while the other half screams "less options! less options!" (this is of course a heavily oversimplified view of the situation; but you get the point). I's happened more than once that users contradict each other.
Havoc Pennington said he already tried that before, but the end result was *slower*, not faster. Basically, it's because of disk seeking time. Harddisks are slow. Simultanous loading will result in a seek storm which makes everything load noticably slower. The same is true for applications: if I try to load Galeon and Mozilla Mail at the same time, the total time is higher than when I load Galeon, and then Mozilla Mail.
Well that only proofs that people like you can't stand being told the truth. What's even more funny is that it's you people who complain about that "Linux zealots" can't stand the truth.
Yeah. When someone says something bad about Linux, he gets modded up as +5 Insightful. Posts that claim that people who complain about Linux get modded down, get modded up as +5 Insightful.
"A perfect example of why proprietary software development works against the needs of the consumer."
Well, lots and lots and lots of people claim that consumers will never use network transparency (and that therebefore it should die and replaced by DirectFB etc.)
I'll never understand why you people are always complaining about new distributions. Fine, so you don't have to upgrade Win98. But then what's stopping you from not upgrading Linux? I find it odd that you complain about Linux when the situation is no different. I've been using RedHat 7.2 for 2 years now and it still works great. 7.2 is extremely usable for the average user who only checks email and browses Internet. I'm typing this in Galeon 1.3 on a GNOME 2 desktop right now, which I have compiled myself (no don't start about that normal users can't compile; they don't have to, they can keep on using GNOME 1/KDE 2 and Galeon 1.2 and KMail).
But still, "RTFM" is more exception than rule. It's rediculous that someone mods down the entire Linux community just because some people say RTFM. As if that doesn't happen in the Windows community either.
They don't do that because people will flame them down, screaming "BLOAT!!! BLOAT!!! OMFG OPEN SOURCE SUCKSS!!!!!". Heck, people with 400 Mhz 64 MB RAM machines still complain about GNOME and KDE being slow instead of blaming themselves for not upgrading their hardware.
Who modded this up as insightful? This article has got nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Linux! "Linux is the soceity that tends to bash users for being too stupid to do anything"??? Man, just look around you instead of randomly generalizing Linux users! The advanced Windows users community is no different. Have you ever visited web forums where lots of power users hang around? They'll call you a n00b too if you can't figure out how to put a CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive.
This has got nothing to do with Linux, and everything to do with being a power users. It's both ignorant and stupid to only label Linux users like that.
You've got to be kidding. The majority of the trolls are definitely anti-GNOME trolls. Open your eyes. This is the Slashdot of 2003: 1. Anti-GNOME (and possibly pro-KDE) trolls far outnumbers anti-KDE trolls. 2. Slashdot is not a pro-Linux anti-MS site anymore. It's a pro-OS X site, which means anti-Linux *and* anti-MS. 3. The majority still says open source software are unusable no matter what people do.
"WinFS is reviewed, Slashdot [slashdot.org] has a flame war about file system layout, and concludes that MS sucks and a database file system is a stupid idea anyway and no-one wants one"
Wrong! Slashdot concluded that WinFS will make computing soooo much easier that it will blow the competition out of the sky and that if Linux doesn't caught up fast it will die off.
Open your eyes people. Slashdot is not an anti-MS site anymore!!!
Slashdot Mirror
"Gnome2 simply removed the option instead of fixing the behaviour (panel being above fullscreen windows [mplayer, blender, etc.] for example)."
No, the reason why they removed those options is because they *did* fix the issues. Your problem shows that you're not using a NETWM-compliant window manager. Switch to Metacity.
And where are your arguments to backup your claim? I contributed an application to the GNOME project. I did it for free. I'm not a professional. If I'm not a volunteer then what am I?
What a rediculous and incredibly arrogant statement.
I am a volunteer amateur programmer! If I don't design the GUI, then who does? Or are you going to help me hire an expen$$ive UI designer for every little app I'm going to make?
"Well, speaking as a programmer who "uses" many other pieces of software...yeah, I think I do have some better ideas for many of the pieces of software I use..."
You mean ideas of how the UI can be better for yourself.
Users suggesting UI improvements are no better than programmers: they are trying to design a GUI that they themselves think is right. Both of them don't really know whether the GUI they have in mind is good for everybody else too.
I find it rediculous that Slashdotters tend to praise users over developers. Users are not magically better at making GUIs than programmers!
"Well, somewhere in my fairly generic installation of Gnome (courtesy of RH7.3), somewhere in either Gnome or Sawfish is a little drop-down knob that can control *how many options are seen* in the configurator."
And this is a bad thing. Nautilus had something similar called "user levels". They eventually removed that because it was a bad idea:
- Lots of users overestimate themselves and always set the level to Advanced.
- Support nightmare.
- Some other stuff I can't remember.
Giving people the option to choose how many options they will see is a bad idea. It's been proven and dicussed to dead on the GNOME mailing lists.
In case of GNOME, there's the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines. Yet there are many, *many* users who absolutely hate and dispise the HIG.
Then how do you deal with contradicting feedback? What if users are contradicting each other? A very good example would GNOME: half of the users scream "more options! more options!" while the other half screams "less options! less options!" (this is of course a heavily oversimplified view of the situation; but you get the point).
I's happened more than once that users contradict each other.
Havoc Pennington said he already tried that before, but the end result was *slower*, not faster. Basically, it's because of disk seeking time. Harddisks are slow. Simultanous loading will result in a seek storm which makes everything load noticably slower. The same is true for applications: if I try to load Galeon and Mozilla Mail at the same time, the total time is higher than when I load Galeon, and then Mozilla Mail.
"Imagine installing Linux for your mother or grandmother, and right there on the desktop is a big icon that says THE GIMP. ... Riiiiight."
Surely you mean "Gimp Image Editor".
Well that only proofs that people like you can't stand being told the truth. What's even more funny is that it's you people who complain about that "Linux zealots" can't stand the truth.
Yeah. When someone says something bad about Linux, he gets modded up as +5 Insightful. Posts that claim that people who complain about Linux get modded down, get modded up as +5 Insightful.
"A perfect example of why proprietary software development works against the needs of the consumer."
Well, lots and lots and lots of people claim that consumers will never use network transparency (and that therebefore it should die and replaced by DirectFB etc.)
I'll never understand why you people are always complaining about new distributions.
Fine, so you don't have to upgrade Win98. But then what's stopping you from not upgrading Linux? I find it odd that you complain about Linux when the situation is no different. I've been using RedHat 7.2 for 2 years now and it still works great. 7.2 is extremely usable for the average user who only checks email and browses Internet. I'm typing this in Galeon 1.3 on a GNOME 2 desktop right now, which I have compiled myself (no don't start about that normal users can't compile; they don't have to, they can keep on using GNOME 1/KDE 2 and Galeon 1.2 and KMail).
Because GNU Ish was created before OpenSSH. It's as simple as that.
Then they are going to the wrong places.
But still, "RTFM" is more exception than rule. It's rediculous that someone mods down the entire Linux community just because some people say RTFM. As if that doesn't happen in the Windows community either.
As opposed to Windows's MFC, VCL, QT, WxWindows, XUL, FLTK, GTK+, CLX, OLE, COM, TurboVision, ActiveX?
WTF are you talking about? You are modded as +5 Insightful!!! Quit blindly blaming people and open your eyes!
They don't do that because people will flame them down, screaming "BLOAT!!! BLOAT!!! OMFG OPEN SOURCE SUCKSS!!!!!". Heck, people with 400 Mhz 64 MB RAM machines still complain about GNOME and KDE being slow instead of blaming themselves for not upgrading their hardware.
Does SVG support sound and video? Can you write games in SVG?
Who modded this up as insightful? This article has got nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Linux!
"Linux is the soceity that tends to bash users for being too stupid to do anything"??? Man, just look around you instead of randomly generalizing Linux users! The advanced Windows users community is no different. Have you ever visited web forums where lots of power users hang around? They'll call you a n00b too if you can't figure out how to put a CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive.
This has got nothing to do with Linux, and everything to do with being a power users. It's both ignorant and stupid to only label Linux users like that.
You've got to be kidding. The majority of the trolls are definitely anti-GNOME trolls. Open your eyes. This is the Slashdot of 2003:
1. Anti-GNOME (and possibly pro-KDE) trolls far outnumbers anti-KDE trolls.
2. Slashdot is not a pro-Linux anti-MS site anymore. It's a pro-OS X site, which means anti-Linux *and* anti-MS.
3. The majority still says open source software are unusable no matter what people do.
What?! What do you think this post is?
"There's not much else that can compare to the RAD capabilities of VB."
Oh yes there is. It's called Delphi. Delphi beats VB in every way: language, speed, price, etc. And Delphi is available for Linux too (Kylix).
"WinFS is reviewed, Slashdot [slashdot.org] has a flame war about file system layout, and concludes that MS sucks and a database file system is a stupid idea anyway and no-one wants one"
Wrong! Slashdot concluded that WinFS will make computing soooo much easier that it will blow the competition out of the sky and that if Linux doesn't caught up fast it will die off.
Open your eyes people. Slashdot is not an anti-MS site anymore!!!