[LAU] Debian desktop news

[david]

On 08/09/2012 12:23 AM, rosea.grammostola wrote:
> On 08/09/2012 10:40 AM, david wrote:
>> Debian is dropping GNOME3 as their default desktop environment, and
>> going with XFCE. Why? Because they can't fit Debian+GNOME3 onto a single
>> CD.
>>
>> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE1NTk
>>
>> You may now return to your regularly-scheduled interruption.
>>
>
> It seems this is a choice due to lack of clear vision. Tablets and
> mobile devices put the world up-side-down and we don't know how to
> handle this? What to do with tablets and what to do with our Desktops?
> At least it seems that Linux has missed the boat on mobile devices
> (maego/ meego). Too late with adjusting to a changing world?
>
> Gnome2 was better then XFCE, so degeneration here on the Linux Desktop ...
>
> Tbh I'm not negative about Gnome3. It provides a clean and well
> organized workspace. Much cleaner and less cluttered then Unity imho.
> But yeah, how useful are those 'touchscreen features' for a Desktop with
> a oldfashion mouse and keyboard. But what will my hardware looks like in
> a few years?

Well, my most recent hardware here is still much the same. My main 
laptop is 8 years old now and running fine. My sound effects laptop is 
my wife's old laptop, so that's about 10 years old. She has a netbook, 
about a year old now. The desktop machine is the powerhouse system here 
(2.8GHz quad-core Phenom2 processor, 12GB RAM). While I have Wacom 
graphics tablets, none of our machines have touch screens.

In a few more years, I expect it to be the same. We're content creators 
here, not content consumers, so tablet computers and smartphones are 
really non-starters for us. (Not that we have either, we have only got 
"featurephones" about a year ago!)

> But stepping back to XFCE, it feels like giving up all your goals for
> being relevant on the Desktops and mobile devices in the real world.

I've done enough bits of UI design over the decades to think that the 
idea of a single UI for desktop and touchscreen devices is a mistake. 
Fundamental elements of the user interaction are different. The way 
people use the devices is different. For example, tablets and 
smartphones are almost never used for multitasking as desktops are. So 
tablet/touchscreen UIs that make every app hog the entire screen are a 
non-starter for desktop multitasking users.

And (apologies to those advocating for voice recognition software) I can 
type far faster than I can talk, and far more accurately than the 
software can recognize my words ...

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community
http://clanjones.org/david/
http://dancing-treefrog.deviantart.com/