Re: Minutes of the GNOME Board meeting 10 July 2001

[linas linas org (Linas Vepstas)]

Hi Havoc,

Thanks for the response ..

On Mon, Jul 16, 2001 at 07:30:40PM -0400, Havoc Pennington was heard to remark:
> 
> I think most people would generally agree, so didn't follow up to
> argue. ;-)
> 
> Our concerns are more about how to get there, and that is a very
> nontrivial question (and there are very different schools of thought
> within the GNOME community, several of them well-developed). Also,

Not to waste your time, but ... what are the various lines of thinking?
(I'm guessing, but 
-- one must be to build MS-compatible tools; that seems to be de Icaza's 
   tack; 
-- the other must be along the lines of 'let the smartest volunteer
   coders build what they feel like, for verily, they will make it
   technically correct and therefore superior.'

I presume the important discussion happens on the gnome-hackers list?

> this clearly can't be something that only GNOME addresses, it's a
> problem that spans all of free software.

Yeah.  The future direction has both politcal and technical elements.
The former is why I'm blasting out these emails.   The latter is just
plain hard, its hard to see out just 2-3 years.  I'm working on a 
screed on computing 10-20 years out, its at

http://www.linas.org/theory/eternity.html

but trying to plan & make technology selections for the next 2-3 years
is really really hard.  I am no fan of java, but I see why businesses
like it: between java and .net, there is a gulf, and if you have to
contemplate writing a new app from scratch, theres not much to work
from.


--linas