Waccoon wrote:
It's the lack of standards and coordination that's the problem. Linux is very widely standardized, but the UIs that people build on it are so fragmented, it's horrific. Try installing Debian, then Mandrake. HUGE difference, but it's basicly still the same OS (Linux and GNU). Linux people just can't agree on a standard way of doing things, and they don't want to, either. The whole idea of free software is doing whatever the hell you want.
You have a very good point there. However, there are times when I fervently wish people would stop doing that (whatever the hell they want) and work towards one, or at the most two different GUI toolkits. I think I have had to install five or six on my computer just to run all the applications I require to do my job. One doesn't do
this, the other one doesn't do
that, and it all amounts to confusing the heck out of me, not having standard ways of copy-pasting, invoking menus, and so forth, and wasting disk space. There is a richness in being able to customise things to your own liking, but as you said, on Linux it has become a nightmare. Windows most definitely has a big advantage there.
KDE is an embarassment for Linux. It's utlra-slow, heralds visuals instead of function, and works no better than any Windows toolkit. It's a shame that GUI programmers are regarded as second-class in the programming world, but they do deserve it to a point.
Eh? I don't use KDE (nor Gnome), but this surprises me to some extent. I've always favoured KDE since it simply used what was available, and was not burdened by ideological open source arguments as is Gnome. (And as you undoubtedly know, that is Gnome's sole raison d'etre.) Can you please be a little more specific as to why KDE is slow and not very special, or point me to a site which explains things in more detail? Thanks!
One of these days I'll get around to writing my own GUI toolkit.
Please, no. And if you do, keep it for internal, private use, unless you can persuade people that your toolkit is
really the best thing since sliced bread. :-)
MacOS should be an example of the perfect computer. Use someone else's proven OS, and just build your own desktop. I really wish XWindows would drop dead.
I'm not very fond of the system either. It's unique in that you're able to use a graphics system remotely, but since that requires a network connection with a fair amount of bandwidth, I am beginning to question the sanity of keeping it alive too. Perhaps that is a worthy programming project? Developing a new graphics infrastructure for Linux? Much better than writing yet another toolkit if you ask me. :-)
