Linus on Gnome 3.2

[Thomas Milne]

On Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 11:16 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org>
>
> | If Unity can be a project for a new dsktop style, why couldn't the
> | people that wanted someting totally new do someting like that instead
> | of hijacked and breaking gnome?
> |
> | Gnome has lost many users and almost certainl a number of developers
> | over this.  Was this new desktop idea really worth that?  If it was a
> | good idea if would have survived and grown as a new project.
> |
> | You don't go an break the expectations of our users if you care about
> | them as users.
>
> As a Gnome 2 & 3 user, my opinion IN THIS CASE is strongly in
> agreement with Lennart.
>
> But I don't like that.
>
> Our systems are too complicated and intricate.  Simplicity and
> elegance are important goals in computer systems.  The horrible truth
> is that it is very hard to throw things away so almost all living
> computer systems grow worse over time by this metric.
>
> We really need to figure out how to simplify and eliminate features
> without killing the userbase.
>
> The Gnome Shell (by whatever name) has a long history of removing
> features and options.  I've been bitten more than once.  I've taken it
> philosophically in the past.  I've not decided whether I will accept
> the losses with the move to Gnome 3's shell.
>
> And even if I end up accepting it, I probably won't think that this is
> a wise or kind change for most of the exiting userbase.
>
> Given all this simplification, why is the resulting system so fat?

I don't see Gnome 3 as all that radical a departure from Gnome 2.
Apart from the hysteria over the removal of the restore button, I
haven't even heard much in the way of _specific_ criticisms. It's
mostly vague assumptions about how it works by people who haven't used
it. I'm not saying there _aren't_ valid criticisms, but nothing
fundamental is even missing, apart from the restore button.

Gnome 3 actually runs much faster for me than Gnome 2 did.

Has anyone actually observed a lot of users abandoning Gnome, or is
this speculation?

-- 
Thomas Milne
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