On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 07:20, Edward Croft wrote:
Yes, I knew BlueCurve was a theme, but there was also writeups that
they
did stuff to kde and gnome that ended up breaking some things in kde. I
probably didn't explain it properly. As I said to Brian, I think it was,
I was tired and frustrated when I wrote that and frankly ranting. Let me
clarify, when I first installed RH8 with BlueCurve, I was a bit put off.
But then again, RH always defaulted to Gnome. I was always able to
switch to kde and it would look like kde. With the advent of the
thhhheeeemmmmmeeee BlueCurve, when I switched to kde it still looked the
same. It apppppeeeeeaaaarrrrreeeed, that you were stuck with BlueCurve
look and feel.
I don't fault Ed on anything here, there was a lot of complaining on
BlueCurve, and that's just what he heard. I chaulk it all up to "you
can't please everyone," because Red Hat was targeting the "non-Linux
user" who often heard the bigotry of "Linux needs a single interface."
Here's the basic bullet points on why people said what they did:
1) Red Hat is _clearly_ a GNOME-centric company. Unintentionally this
causes Red Hat to make GNOME-oriented choices.
2) One Red Hat staffer who supported a lot of the KDE stuff resigned
over various details (not related to BlueCurve). Many people then
proliferated that he resigned over BlueCurve. I don't know the details
myself, but this is what was relayed to me 2nd hand.
3) Many of the default applications for _both_ platforms were GNOME.
E.g., the default web browser for KDE was Mozilla, not Konqueror. I
could see why KDE would get a little "disturbed at that."
4) You _could_easily_ reset everything "back to defaults." But many
people found it even easier just to "bitch" instead of doing that.
;-ppp
In a nutshell Ed, Red Hat gets a lot of flak it doesn't deserve. Yes,
they make choices that make some people upset. And they _are_ clearly
"GNOME-biased," but it's unintentional.
You always have other choices though.
I had also heard that people had problems if they
attempted to load kde 3 on RH 8, so I didn't bother and learned to adapt
to the look and feel with BlueCurve.
People have problems upgrading to the latest versions of GNOME, KDE,
etc... all the time.
but I was going through a divorce, lost my home, then lost my job,
and
a multitude of other things that left futzing with a desktop manager a
very low priority.
Yeah, the last thing you wanted was "more change." Understand totally.
;-ppp
would like it if installing software was as easy and as supported as
on Windows.
Try to install _two_ different versions of MS Office on the same Windows
system.
Where people see "hard to install" with regard to Linux, I see "DLL
hell" with regards to Windows.
So what is it? Easy installing or DLL hell because the platform does
_not_ have dependency checking?
There's no win-win situation, although apt-rpm is getting pretty damn
easy.
but I still have trouble when I go to a music site and can't get
realplayer to work right.
Whoa! Time out. That is _not_ a Linux issue! That's a site/vendor
issue! Linux developers can do _little_ about that.
Next you'll be blaming Linux for unsupported hardware.
If you start blaming Linux developers for clearly 100% site/vendor
issues, then there is no way to please you.
You have to ask Linux developers for things they _can_ do.
I even tried Crossover Plugin, and that didn't work just right.
Emulation never truly "works right."
On Windows, you download and run and it works.
And that's because of vendor alliances and other business dealings.
Yep, sure, that's the fault of Linux developers. Yep.
Okay, so the operating system has major problems, but
most things work out of the box. I don't have to go looking up how to
install drivers for webcams, scanners, et al.
Damn I'm good! [ I knew you would come here ]
Okay, so I have an oddball scanner that was only supported under 98,
Exactomundo. Now put it together ...
- I can only view something on one OS
- Hardware is tied to only one OS
Hmmm, that means that I have to get my OS and hardware from select
vendors! And I have to upgrade my hardware _every_ time I upgrade my
OS. And my OS vendor forces me to upgrade my OS!
Wow! Maybe there's some things going on that _force_ you into this
situation???
Let's blame it on the Linux developers for not "giving me a way out" of
my vendor lock-in.
but hey. I figure, if I am an RHCE, it all should be easy for me,
but it isn't.
Because Linux developers can do _nothing_ about the problems you have
above.
I just about aced that test, but still can't get music to play at
a
website. If I want to play a DVD on my PC then I have to go and get
plugins for the software because the system doesn't come with it
because of licensing.
Exactomundo. [ At least you get that part ;-]
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I am a supporter of RHL. I use it
both at
work and at home. It just gets frustrating sometimes when things aren't
the way you expect them to be.
Okay, still tired, still running my mouth. Getting a cup of joe and
shutting up now.
Well, I see your points. I hope you see mine in return. ;-ppp
Ed (under the gun all the time) Croft, RHCE
--
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
http://thebs.org