[OpenIndiana-discuss] Gnome and the future

[Jim Klimov]

On 2012-11-01 18:18, Dmitry Kozhinov wrote:
> I do not feel similarly :)
>> if it didn't feature a GUI we wouldn't notice or care.


I felt similarly for decades - on either linux or solaris, an X11
environment for me was just a way to:
1) Run many terminals instead of one in text mode,
2) Run installers which demand GUI,
3) Run some programs that need to run for a long time during which
    my ssh session could get disconnected (VNC or text-mode screen
    could solve most of these situations).

Now that I have a laptop whose primary OS is OI, my attitude towards
graphics running over the Unix core has changed. Still, there are
just so many features and programs that I need - and they do work
already - like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, terminals and VBox.
At the moment the driver problem is greater in my opinion - lack of
USB3, newer CPU-integrated Radeons, Wifi and such support is worse
than the lack of shiny newest versions of userspace programs or the
window-switching special effects that I disable anyway.

Heck, if they are available for linux, I could just run them in a
Linux VM or lx-branded zone, especially if my desktop could support
the accelerated graphics. Currently the radeon is seen as a generic
VESA VGA card and I can see it redraw the screen line-by-line when
major video updates occur.

This is what sucks and can push the newcomers (or even old diehards)
away ;)

PS: As a linux environment I've recently tried Fedora17... well, it
took a while to just find the terminal program and others I needed
in the "new and shiny" menu system, about half a dozen clicks away
from the moment of login. The fancy stuff should not be a goal "per
se", and it shouldn't prohibit people from working (and needlessly
burn extra electricity in the process).

A DE should be comfortable, quick and feature-compliant where needed
(i.e. 3D and other hardware-accelerated effects if required by those
users of visualization graphics). I think the common X server provides
these low-level features, and a choice of lightweight or heavy-fancy
window managers and ultimate DEs (twm, cde, xfce, gnome, kde, ...)
should be up to the users based on their personal needs or lack thereof.

My 2c,
//Jim