Of Linus, KDE, and mouse buttons

JoeHill joehill-R6A+fiHC8nRWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org
Sat Mar 29 18:28:57 UTC 2008


Evan Leibovitch wrote: 

> JoeHill wrote:
> 
> > Like with so many other issues, a lot of people just love to pretend that
> > everything comes down to a choice between two things. Perhaps they are
> > easily confused? Dunno. Personally, I think Torvalds is missing the point
> > completely. Apparently he believes that, like him, every single Linux user
> > wants to install one desktop environment and be done with it.  
> That sounds about right to me.
> 
> Most people I know who have lives have better things to do with their
> time than having to evaluate different desktop choices. The platform is,
> for most people, a means rather than an end; their efforts are best
> spent mastering applications.

You're right, I wouldn't want to overtax peoples' brains by giving them more
than two choices. That would just be cruel. Thank God there are other people to
tell us what our choices are, and keep it to just two.
 
> > That one desktop environment should just give him everything he wants.
> > Great, but unfortunately then you end up with...KDE, the most ridiculous
> > and bloated crap imagineable. 
> Such superlatives -- especially launched at a system many people appear
> to have had far less problem mastering -- don't help make a case. I for
> one can certainly imagine -- and have even used -- software far more
> bloated and less ridiculous.

Not a question of mastering anything, a question of using without getting
frustrated. You actually kinda sound like the Gnome developers who are
criticized for 'blaming the user'. If there's something that KDE or Gnome just
can't or won't do, there's no way to 'master' doing it, is there?

> > Using the KDE file selection dialogue is less fun than stepping on a nail.
> > Last time I checked, they still had not figured out the concept of 'drag
> > and drop'. 
> Works for me. YMMV, I guess.

I suppose it might only work if you have the full K desktop installed, which I
don't. Any K apps I've tried to use, like Amarok and Qdvdauthor, do not seem
to understand drag and drop at all, and navigating the file chooser dialogue
is just a headache. It doesn't even respond to the mousewheel. 
 
> > There is a very good reason why most applications are developed using GTK,
> > and now more and more PyGTK. The same reason that the best desktop
> > environment there is, XFCE4,  
> The best? Does that mean that you prefer one? Isn't that.... a  _choice_?

I didn't say anything about not making a choice. I said the perception that one
must choose between Gnome or KDE is false.

BTW, ya think ya could fix yer line wrap?

-- 
JoeHill
++++++++++++++++++++
 Fry: Where's Captain Bender? Off catastrophizing some other planet? 
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