10 ideas to improve GNOME

Why get all worked up about it?

Did you read the long thread in the bug entry? People got upset because it seems there's no way to engage constructively the g-s maintainer. When you're talking about a problem and the other guy refuses to acknowledge its very existence you usually feel frustrated. Of course if you don't care at all it's all a "getting worked about it".

When epiphany was introduced, a lot of people installed firefox. When rhythmbox was having problems, people kept using xmms. When spatial nautilus was made default, people just switched it back to browse mode. This isn't any different. If you don't want to use the default programs, install something else. Nobody is forcing you to use gnome-screensaver.

Now that's a disturbing trend IMHO, unless of course you think of it as a selling point: "Gnome, the desktop environment whose central and most important components are routinely discarded by its users!".

Of course having the opportunity to pick and choose is a good thing and a big plus for free software, but a project whose main components are disliked and unused by (a good part of) its users has a little problem, can't you see that?

BTW you forgot about Evolution, lots of people use Thunderbird instead, and I hear good things about Thunar a substitute for Nautilus. I stopped using gedit some time ago because it's not small and light as it used to be.

Rehdon

Did you read the long thread in the bug entry? People got upset because it seems there's no way to engage constructively the g-s maintainer. When you're talking about a problem and the other guy refuses to acknowledge its very existence you usually feel frustrated. Of course if you don't care at all it's all a "getting worked about it".

Like I said, it's a screensaver. The maintainer doesn't want to listen to the users. What can you do about that? Nothing, so there's no point in posting flaming rants on message boards. Just use the alternative you know and love and move on.

Now that's a disturbing trend IMHO, unless of course you think of it as a selling point: "Gnome, the desktop environment whose central and most important components are routinely discarded by its users!".

Of course, that's not what I said. There are some users, notably those that like to rant here, that don't like some of the default software. But most people just want to use their computers, like me, and don't really care about configuring the screensaver.

Of course having the opportunity to pick and choose is a good thing and a big plus for free software, but a project whose main components are disliked and unused by (a good part of) its users has a little problem, can't you see that?

No, not really. First of all, aside from Nautilus, none of those are "main components." Second, what Gnome packages is upstream. Distributions will customize it as they see fit and users will not necessarily be directly affected by upstream decisions. Most distributions already ship firefox by default instead of epiphany. Many distributions included their own menu editor before Gnome had its own. So, find a distribution that packages Gnome the way you like it and use it. Add software that you want. Remove software that you don't want. As long as there are numerous alternatives available, complaining about an upstream packaging decision is fairly pointless.

How many software packages/distributions do you use unchanged directly from the upstream project? I'm willing to bet very few. If its firefox, you probably added a few extensions and tweaked it to your liking. If it's apache, you almost certainly added some modules to serve up content the way you want. If it's something directly from source, maybe gcc, you probably compiled it with your chosen features. If it's Fedora, you probably turned off some of the default services and added the software you use on a regular basis.

Gnome is no different. It's a distribution. It includes some default packaging decisions made by the maintainers (not always the best ones). The thing is, it will never be perfect for everyone. So if you've decided you want to use Gnome and not something else, which you obviously have, download it and customize it to your liking by adding/removing components that you want/don't want. By all means, file bug reports if something irritates you, but don't get all worked up about something when I'm sure there are more important things demanding your attention. Just deal with it and move on.

I really think you should go back and read with careful attention what other people have written before posting longish replies. I'm just going to single out the most relevant facts for you:

* nobody got "all worked up about it": that's your offensive straw man to dismiss people's frustration caused by a developer's inability in dealing with users' feedback;

* whichever software project gets regularly dismantled by part of its users has problems and cannot be considered fully successful; feel free to recur to the usual "it's just a minority of whiners" defense line, I won't deny you that, you might also considering stucking your head deep into the sand and imagining everything's fine, it surely will happen;

* Gnome is not a distribution: that's the most ridicule justification I've ever heard, but congrats for coming up with something new! It's true that distro maintainers can choose to pick and substitute some of its components, but that only moves the problem upstream and, in conclusion, makes it more worrisome.

Don't let me stop from writing "it's just a screensaver, just go back to what works from you!" once again, God forbid. Don't see any point in continuing this discussion if you do, unfortunately.

Rehdon

* nobody got "all worked up about it": that's your offensive straw man to dismiss people's frustration caused by a developer's inability in dealing with users' feedback;

I hardly think saying, "chill out," is being offensive or a straw man. Trust me, I have read plenty of bug reports and message rants, and some of them are quite vitriolic.

* whichever software project gets regularly dismantled by part of its users has problems and cannot be considered fully successful; feel free to recur to the usual "it's just a minority of whiners" defense line, I won't deny you that, you might also considering stucking your head deep into the sand and imagining everything's fine, it surely will happen;

Two things:
If the users are "regularly dismantling" their software, why are they using it in the first place?
If the majority of users are unhappy with Gnome, why has it been such a successful project. You would expect it to die, wouldn't you?

* Gnome is not a distribution: that's the most ridicule justification I've ever heard, but congrats for coming up with something new! It's true that distro maintainers can choose to pick and substitute some of its components, but that only moves the problem upstream and, in conclusion, makes it more worrisome.

Gnome most certainly is a distribution...not a linux distribution, just a software distribution. And it's not a justification. The Gnome desktop is a collection of software packages that more or less integrate well with each other. That is a distribution. I don't see the problem with users and downstream distributors customizing it to their liking. Isn't that the software freedom we all strive for?

Don't let me stop from writing "it's just a screensaver, just go back to what works from you!" once again, God forbid. Don't see any point in continuing this discussion if you do, unfortunately.

So, you claim you aren't really upset, but you obviously are. I don't see much point in continuing the conversation either if you can't present an argument without acerbic commentary.

I must say during all these years using Gnome I always chose to have a simple black screen instead of a more appealing screensaver: it's just all (in a random way) or nothing, with no possibility to choose and configure the desired screensavers.

The simple fact that I chose "nothing" should tell something to the gnome-screensaver maintainer (provided he learned to listen to his users, of course).

Disclaimer: I ignored the very existence of this troubling bug report until I read the parent message.

Rehdon

Right now (Gnome 2.18) the bug isn't in FileRoller but on Nautilus...

Thanks for the clarification. Another reason to dump nauty and go with something simpler like Thunar.

Eh? I use multiple selection, etc... all the time. It works fine.

I'm not the AG but...

"Also, multiple selection does not work anymore since Gtk2 was introduced (meaning multiple selection with Ctrl+Shift pressed at the same time)."

Regarding taskbar buttons, that already happens in some places. File-transfer status windows (such as when you drag something from browser to desktop) show as their icon a bar that fills as the download progresses.

"...That way ordinary users will be prevented from navigation up in the filesystem tree and end up in unfamiliar places. Folders like /etc,
/proc, /lib, /bin, /sbin, /usr, /dev, should never show up by default in file dialogs of ordinary users."