Recently, a couple of blogs/sites have come to my attention all of which address some of my personal trepidations regarding desktop Linux adoption that have been growing inside my mind for some time now: http://eugenia.blogsome.com/2006/12/20/the-slowdown-of-gnulinux/ http://blogs.gnome.org/view/timj/2006/12/20/0 Now, while not all will care for Gnome and its current state, apparently KDE does not fare much better either: http://cogscanthink.blogsome.com/2006/12/21/not-even-one-line-of-code/ I know that many of you don't care for KDE either. Still, I hope you will agree with me that this is a concerning trend nonetheless. So, what does this really mean? I am not sure. It could be simply calm before the storm (in a positive sense), or it could suggest that both projects have lost corporate support and consequently vigor inherent to well-supported initiatives. Yet, reading the comments does bring up some interesting issues, many of which may very well redefine the future of Linux as we know it. So, what do others in the LAU community think? If this is really a concerning trend, should we care? FWIW, I do care, as I do wish that Gnome (my current DE of choice) was more refined in certain areas. I don't care so much for adding customization options--I've used KDE for years and am relieved to admit that endless hours of tweaking my desktop are now behind me. Yet, there are still unrefined bits and pieces which stick out in comparison with the rest of the DE experience, despite the fact that some of them are purely cosmetic (i.e. dragging icons from menus and panels introduces super-old icon representation with very kludge-like animation which is very hard to associate with, while desktop icon highlighting/dragging is very refined and precise). Any thoughts? Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A. Composition, Music Technology, CCTAD, CHCI Virginia Tech Dept. of Music - 0240 Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-1137 (540) 231-5034 (fax) ico@xxxxxx http://www.music.vt.edu/people/faculty/bukvic/
