Re: GNOME Gripes

["Eric G . Miller" <egm2@jps.net>]

On Mon, May 01, 2000 at 07:59:25PM -0700, Ross Boylan wrote:
> I've been using GNOME for awhile in potato--my first encounter with
> it.  It just doesn't seem ready.  I know potato is pre-release, and we
> may not have the latest GNOME in it, and the GNOME folks are working
> hard.
> 
> So I thought I'd gripe, check if this matches others experience, and
> then maybe file some bug reports if I haven't made some configuration
> goof.  I also have no idea if the problem is GNOME or the debian
> integration of GNOME.
> 
> I'm running on i386, mostly with sawmill window manager.  gdm runs the show.
> 
> Stability:
> Balsa crashes very frequently.

That was my experience.  Supposed to be a new mail client coming down
the pipe.  I use mutt, since it works equally well through a console
session -- and it works!

> The GNOME wrapper for gv crashed so much I could barely look at a page
> (the file started as .pdf.gz).

Same experience. Just use gv. It's been working for a long time ;)

> Features:
> Session management is not there.  All my windows come back in the
> first pane of the desktop.  There seems to be no way to get rid of
> things once they are in there.  I tried closing them and resaving the
> session.  I tried deleting them from the session configuration tool
> (whose help button, by the way, does nothing).  The net result of this
> is that I now have about 6 xman's running when I start up.

1. I think the multiple desktop thing is somewhat challenging to
"remember".  Don't think that's a strictly GNOME problem.
2. Make sure when you use the "logout" from GNOME that you save your
current configuration.  Also, make sure you aren't starting such things
in ~/.xsession before "gnome-session". I've seen this with xterms in the
past.  Try again, you'll get it sorted out.
3.  The help docs still leave something to be desired.

> The features in most places are pretty thin--for example, balsa is not
> very capable even when it is running.

I wouldn't judge the whole kit-n-kaboodle on one application.
Especially, one that's slated for replacement.  However, I can't
disagree that most of the GNOME apps have only a rudimentary
functionality.  Still, the improvement over earlier generations is quite
significant.  I read an interview of one of the GNOME developers
recently who said GNOME is currently around the equivalent of early
Windows or Windows 3 functionality.  So, it's well known there's still a
ways to go.  

> Aesthetics:
> I think the default enlightenment theme--in fact most of the themes
> for most of the window managers--are just ugly.  The default theme
> makes it look as if you have a rusting scrap heap on your desk.
> 
> Only the NextStep derivatives have a decent look, to my eye.

GTK is just not very attractive.  GNOME can't do too much about that
until the look of the base widget system is improved.  But, heck, it
looks better than Tk apps!

> Internal Design:
> I think GNOME's facilities and interfaces should have been done in
> object oriented fashion.  Instead, it's got this clunky C interface
> that reminds me of MS Windows.  I understand KDE went the other
> route.  Yes, I know it can all be packaged in CORBA someday, but why
> do the How to program for GNOME docs say (it has been awhile since I
> looked) that the C interface is the native one?

Well, I'm not going to get into a C vs. C++ flame war.  However, my
rudimentary knowledge of the GNOME and GTK interface is that it *is*
designed in the closest approximation to object-orientation that C can
do.  I think there's a promising future for libglade with Python driving
the show.  Then there's a bit more "object orientedness".  Still, you'd
probably want to do heavy processing with a compiled language. 

> Everybody's got to flame every now and then.

Remember, you used to have to pay for software that didn't work as
advertised. Now you can get it for free! Seriously though, we've got a
bunch of volunteers from all over the globe, who mostly have day jobs
putting out software for free.  Sure, there may be better commercial
software for some things -- but it's just amazingly cool that people
would go to all of this trouble just for fun!  So, if someone gives you
a gift, you should at least be gracious (even if you don't particularly
like polyester neon-green leisure suits!).


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