Monday, May 28, 2012

Gnome3 hates me, so be it

I am loathe to think that the same people who made Vista what it is could be the same people who are behind the UI changes in Gnome3. It isn't true, of course. But if Microsoft wanted to sabotage Linux on the Desktop, this would be the easiest way. Have the Vista people infiltrate the Gnome organization and unleash their ideas on unsuspecting Gnome developers. I apologize sincerely to all the hardworkng Gnome developers who are doing cool things on their free time but I think the Gnome3 UI deserves all that people are saying about them.
At first, I was going to rant on the shortcomings and nuisance that is Gnome3. I was going to elaborate on the designers "This is not the desktop for you, it is for everybody else" alienating attitude and wonder who else is left when they are done and who exactly are these mythical "everybody else" that would fall in love with Gnome and Linux by just spending 5 minutes using Gnome3.  I really wanted to delve into their "We know best..." opinions and "...therefore we will teach you how the it should be" pretensions (example). Finally, I wanted to draw parallels to their condition with that of the XFree68 organization before it was disbanded, though I do not wish them that fate. (For those of you too young to remember, read XFree86 Wikipedia link and the two opposing views here and here).
Finally, as I slowly solved my problems one by one (Is Suspend Sleep or Hibernate? Where is Mageia Control Center? and on and on), I realized that this is a necessary process. What is going on with Gnome3 is what makes Open Source what it is. As the Gnome3 UI developers hide (but not remove) features, other developers create extensions that uncover them for their current userbase. As developers and users push and pull, the result can only be a better program for everybody who uses it. This is about finding the middle ground between high-concept, bleeding edge UI design and the guy who has to use this for work every day, day in and day out. If you have chosen to leave for XFCE or KDE, that is your choice and I understand and respect that. That is just the way of the world we live in and we like it that way. And on the other side of the fence, we have passed the half-way mark of the Decade of Hating the Office Ribbon and powerless to do anything about it.
Please excuse me while I moderate the fight over control of my screen's bottom right corner between the Gnome3's notification and the down vertical scroll button of every other graphical Linux program out there.

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