This is somewhat of a personal pet peeve more than anything. In fact, I'd place this right under the 'Rant' category if I had one. My issue is all about when GNOME 3.0 is going to get released, if ever.
First off, let me mention that I prefer Fluxbox and Blackbox to any window manager out there, including KDE and GNOME. I just like speed and available RAM to eye candy ease of use. So when asked if I prefer GNOME or KDE, I just respond with 'yes'. Either or. Doesn't matter. Both have strengths that I like over the other and both have weaknesses the other lacks. And I am not going to get into that debate here.
Now, can someone explain to me where GNOME is headed? What is it's direction? So far, it isn't maintaining compatibility with older GNOME 2.x releases, and the look and feel hasn't changed much, if at all, over the years. I mean, c'mon! GNOME 2.14??? KDE will be releasing 4.0 towards the end of this year with a big breakaway from the current UI. Threre just seems to be large momentum behind KDE while GNOME remains stagnant.
Then I stumbled across this page. Project Topaz. Quote:
There is currently no timeline for GNOME 3.0, but whenever it happens, it will be our first opportunity to make a clean break from the 2.x series, which has a number of compatibility concerns.
Do you think?! Compatibility concernes. Huh, who would've imagined. And no timeline for 3.0? So...., can we expect any progress in this area at all? And what do you mean by "it will be our first oppotunity to make a clean break from the 2.x series"? In other words, you (meaning the developers) don't like the 2.x series, yet nothing is being done about it, or you're going to fork 3.0 with the current 2.x releases? Interesting. I do find if funny, however, that you have a project writeup with a bunch of developers whining about what they want to see, yet no real goals or structure to it all. But hey, you're releasing 2.16 soon, so uh, contragts, or something, I think. Can't wait to see what that brings to the table (yeah, right).
All-in-all, I am disappointed in the progress of GNOME. I should be seeing something more streamlined and more integrated. I should be seeing apps integrating tightly with the desktop rather than a bunch of scattered APIs. But hey, as the phrase goes "you get what you pay for", I guess I can't complain too badly. After all, there are other solutions and better alternatives.
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