Re: the same page

[Dick Porter <dick ximian com>]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2001 at 03:13:41AM -0500, Cody Russell wrote:
> On Wed, 2001-12-19 at 22:27, Seth Nickell wrote:
> 
> > I also don't think its unreasonable to say "Use an older machine, use
> > older software". If you're using a Pentium-200 you should probably
> > consider using GNOME 1.4 or Windows98 instead of GNOME 2.0 or WindowsXP.
> > Its true that you won't have the same features...but if you can always
> > get the same features without any hardware upgrades why would anyone
> > ever upgrade? Why aren't we still using Commodore64s or whatever?
> 
> One of Gnome's major purposes is to provide a free alternative to
> commercial desktop environments such as Windows or Mac.  By limiting
> Gnome's features to a set of features fit for a Pentium 2, Gnome would
> not really be working very hard towards that purpose.  Targetting older
> machines that have been abandoned by Microsoft doesn't really accomplish
> anything for anyone, I think.

Why are the flashy resource-intensive features mandatory?

Theres no reason that gnome 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5) cant include both the bloatware
eyecandy for the yanks with loads of cash and GHz athlons,  and also sane
alternatives for the rest of the world.  For example, nautilus is very
pretty, but gmc will do the job if you run an "obsolete" machine.


> Most people on older machines are either
> using Win95 and won't change because they've been using it all this
> time, or they're using fvwm or an old KDE or Gnome 1.0 release.

Disagree.  I think most people using older machines will be doing so because
they just cant afford a new one.

> Writing
> future Gnome releases that don't provide additional cool features for
> those users due to hardware restraints obviously doesn't gain those
> users anything so they're not likely to upgrade, and it doesn't provide
> the alternative to modern desktops or operating systems so higher-end
> users won't use it either.  Ultimately Gnome gains a few low-end
> computer users but loses out on potentially many higher-end users.

New releases fix bugs, provide new features of used applications, and
generally say that we care about accessibility to the less well off as well
as to the physically disabled.  Think 3rd world projects to provide IT to
Nepalese villages, for example.  They will often be running on 2nd hand
cast-off hardware: if GNOME is too bloated, then they wont be using it and
we lose out on a whole market share.

> 
> It's also much less fun for the developers. =)

My heart bleeds :)

> 
> Cody

- Dick