Advogato blog for ottawaDave

22 Dec 2003

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:57:31 GMT

[thomasvs: Yes, I should have added to my raw notes that I understood how unlikely/impossible (for reasons technical and otherwise) the notion was. However, I still wanted to raise the idea, for whatever good it might do.]

Watching the Gnome/KDE fuss rage on the UserLinux project reminded me of my belief that having these two independant projects is not an advantage for Linux or open source software in general. I also remembered that I wrote some notes on this subject a few months ago, in preparation for an article I wanted to write on the subject. That never got done, and I have little time for it now.

Now that the topic is hot, I thought that I'd put my notes here on Advogato and that that might spark some discussion of the problem. They are very brief, unformed, inconclusive -- just notes, in other words. I hope they will soon be expanded on.

-----------------------------------------------

Why The Independant Existence of Gnome & KDE is Bad For Linux
=============================================================

 
 
 * Gnome and KDE, to all intents and purposes, do the very same thing
    * this provides not choice, but the /appearance/ of choice
    * this kind of choice is not a help, but a hindrance, overall
        * like a babel of tongues
    * for choice, users have the standalone window managers
        * IceWM
        * Windowmaker
        * Evolution
        * Xfce
        * [Black|Flux|Open]box
        * many more

 
 
 * massive duplication of effort
    * duplication of
        * office suites
            * KDE -- Koffice
            * Gnome -- Gnome Office
        * feature-full graphical email clients
            * KDE -- Kmail
            * Gnome -- Evolution
        * desktop/file manager
            * KDE -- konqueror
            * Gnome -- Nautilus
        * component-sharing system
            * KDE -- kparts
            * Gnome -- Bonobo
    * that effort could be spent elsewhere
    * this is also duplication of functionality that probably confuses new
      users

 
 
     http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6476&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

 
 
 * inconsistent end-user experience
    * often very inconsistent look-n-feel

 
 
 * "The competition is healthy." 
    * We don't need competition in the realm of the FLOSS desktop. 
      We need more cooperation -- there's plenty of real competition out there.
    * The clash of loyalties creates a lot of unnecessary waste.
      Waste of time, energy, good will, etc.

16 Dec 2002

Mon, 16 Dec 2002 00:35:05 GMT

BOSS and the Open Source Weekend (OSW) now has a full list of sponsors, speakers, panelists, and events.

11 Nov 2002

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 20:37:03 GMT

BOSS, the Business of Open Source Software conference, will be held on January 26th, 2003. It will be part of a larger event called the Open Source Weekend. There will soon be a URL for that.

BOSS now has a channel on irc.freenode.net: #osw.

7 Nov 2002

Thu, 7 Nov 2002 00:15:11 GMT

The BOSS page has been updated with a little info about what to expect in the coming BOSS.

On a completely different subject, does anyone know why advogato's server often takes so long to respond or (sometimes) times out altogether?

19 Jun 2002

Wed, 19 Jun 2002 14:38:08 GMT

All of the below is obviously very out-of-date.
I will bring it in sync with the rest of spacetime very soon.

18 Oct 2001

Thu, 18 Oct 2001 22:23:03 GMT

IBM has agreed to sponsor BOSS, and to join the panel. That's great news -- it should increase again the event's visibility, and allow us to attract still more mainstream attention.

Now if only that other large corporation -- let's call them "Sybil" -- would come on side. We shall see. Stay tuned.

9 Oct 2001

Tue, 9 Oct 2001 01:28:50 GMT

The Business of Open Source Software conference (BOSS) will take place on Sunday, November 25 at the auditorium of the Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, from 1:00PM to 4:00PM.

30 Sep 2001

Sun, 30 Sep 2001 15:27:47 GMT

The Business of Open Source Software conference (BOSS) proceeds apace. I just added a lot of relevant information to the project page.

13 Sep 2001

Thu, 13 Sep 2001 19:33:15 GMT

The team members organizing The Business of Open Source Software symposium may now affiliate themselves with the project BOSS.

Stay tuned for more.

13 Sep 2001

Thu, 13 Sep 2001 05:53:05 GMT

It's Official-- dyork is becoming a Canadian. He may already be one. Curling! Holy Jazes, Dan! I've been a Canadian all my life, and I have yet to even step into a curling rink. This is like The Body Snatchers or something. What's next? ``zed''? Decent beer? Road hockey? Responsible Government?

Welcome, Dan. We're a little odd, but we make our own fun ;)