[OT] Editing menus revisited

[Joseph E. Sacco, Ph.D.]

Agreed..

The issue really isn't the OS and its underlying basic framework.
GNU/Linux is solid. It's the huge number of packages and their complex
interdependencies that leads to "bloat".

Most of us who are on this list opt in install "everything". We were
presented with other options, but we choose to install everything
because we love toys. We love exploring new things. We get cranky when
our toys don't meet our expectations. 

For some, a techno-toy that fails to meet our expectations is a
challenge, a glove thrown down, something to be set right. For others,
who lack the time, interest, or skill set to "set it right", it's a huge
source of frustration. It's all a matter of personal perspective.

Technology is an extension of our senses and our selves. It allows us to
do things we cannot easily do "naturally". In the business world there
is a simple maxim, "Technology serves the needs of business." For those
of us who create technology, we sometimes lose site of this simple
truth.

An interesting thought experiment is to consider just how many of the
1400+ packages you actually use. Then think through what's needed to
support that minimal set. Then... [gasp!!!], strip down your system to
meet your requirements.

If the system is a "work" system, this is a rational thing to do.  If
the system is your personal exploration system, you will resent giving
up a single package, even if you don't know what it's for or how well it
performs. After all, you just might need that package someday, sometime,
maybe...

As for GNOME... Like many others, I am tracking it, and am hopeful.


-Joseph

==============================================================================

On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 23:15, Eric Dunbar wrote:
> > As to your rhetorical question of how could FC2 be releases with some
> > many show stopping issues...
> > 
> > The simple answers are:
> > (1) it's open source [what do you want for nothing???]
> > (2) it has to run on N platforms, where N >> 1
> > (3) statistically, the percentage of problems within a 1400+ package
> > release is rather small.
> > (4) How many testers do you need to exhaustively test 1400+ packages?
> 
> #3 and 4 is the problem. The kitchen sink philosophy of building
> operating systems is a failure -- Windows is a pitiful OS, and, when
> you look at what are the rising stars in the OSS *nix world, it seems
> that the distros that eschew the kitchen sink in favour of a simple
> tap and wash bucket make up a disproportionately large portion of the
> heavens.
> 
> Although I like YDL, I do have to admit that I was quite taken aback
> by the clutter that I found in the menus in YDL 4 when I recently
> experimented with it (after having not used YDL as a desktop machine
> for quite some time... it's my server OS). I do like the direction
> that GNOME 2.9 is going -- it seems there's a push to simplify things
> (long overdue IMNSHO), although, that might simply be the design
> philosophy of the over-lying distro.
> 
> Eric.
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-- 
joseph_sacco[at]comcast[dot]net