Inside Ximian

An anonymous reader writes "Linux and Main is running a story of a visit to Ximian headquarters and a talk with Nat Friedman, Miguel de Icaza, and Jon Perr about GNOME2, Ximian 2, and getting Linux onto the corporate desktop. Interesting and funny, with lots of details about the place and the guys."

Ximian

[jflash]

And once we're in there, we discover that not all Open Source developers are Dope Smoking Long Haired Linux Hippies...


Jim

Re:Frequently Asked User Interface Questions

[mackstann]

Many studies say that modern day UI must "look like a Microsoft product". Sorry to break it to you, Sun et al., but this simply isn't true.

If only UI developers would take that to heart....I look at Gnome, I see a windows knock-off. I look at KDE, I see a pretty windows knock-off, with OSX knock-off bitmaps.

Why can't the open source desktop people come up with something innovative and useful instead of trying to build a cradle for all of the MS converts?

Why We bought Ximian

[ike42]

My research lab has bought Redcarpet subscriptions for all our linux workstations. There are several good reasons for this over the alternatives you suggest:

1. Ximian's Gnome really is tidiest and most frequently updated Gnome distribution. Although they have fallen behind some others with Gnome2, I expect things to get back to normal when they do release.
2. Redcarpet does much more than update Gnome; you can use it to manage software installation accross a network. It has channels for updating several linux distros, StarOffice, Codeweavers stuff, VMWare, etc. None of the other automatic update tools really compare in content or in ease of use.
3. If you purchase you can have automatic updates and use redcarpet to manage installation of your own software.

If you only manage one computer, and you like to spend your time installing and updating software, then you probably don't really need to pay for Ximian. But it is great if you've got other things to do then worrying about keeping a mess of workstations updated.

However, if you like a company's product you should buy it. By purchasing from Ximian we are helping to support Gnome development. It is just self-interest. Gnome is good for us, so we pay for Gnome.

Writing style?

[dukethug]

Did anyone else find the writer's fawning, adjective-heavy style irritating, even for a Slashdot article?

As an ex-Ximian user...

[Sanity]

...I found it best to stick with my distro [redhat.com]'s default version of Gnome, and use apt-get [freshrpms.net] to keep my system up-to-date. I found that Ximian's "Red Carpet" software had a nasty habit of screwing up the RPM dependencies on my system, and while visually appealing, I didn't really like its interface (for example, the way you need to click on every single package you want upgraded even if there are 50, 60, or 100 of them).

I also got the impression that the purpose of Red Carpet was more to-do with providing Ximian with some kind of business model, than actually providing useful functionality to the end-user - otherwise why not just build it around apt-get and give us all some flexibility?

In the end, I didn't really see any solid advantage to going with Ximian Gnome (although I do like Evolution), and it had the disadvantage of making my rpm dependency tree more complicated than it needs to be.

Re:Frequently Asked User Interface Questions

[Wdomburg]

>POINT TO TYPE!!!!!! Goddamm it, make it the
>default. Complete novices learn it very very
>quickly and it makes it almost impossible to
>return to a click-to-type system. This is the
>biggest way to get Linux converts.

I personally hate that "feature" with a passion.

>It also does not confuse Windows users, if when a
>new window openes or otherwise grabs the focus,
>you warp the pointer to the window.

Another feature I hate. If I want my mouse pointer somewhere, I'll move it myself.

>STOP RAISING WINDOWS WHEN YOU CLICK ON THEM.

I prefer this behaviour myself.

>GET RID OF "LAYERS".

Another feature I prefer. If I didn't want my toolbars permenently visable, I'd set them to hide.

>GET RID OF "APPLIACATION ACTIVATION"... PLEASE
>make it possible to raise a dialog without
>raising the underlying window, so I can copy data
>from another window into it!

I can count the number of times this would be useful to me on zero hands. I highlight from app A, raise app B, paste. No need for the window I'm pasting from to be raised when I've already gotten the data I'm copying from it.

On the other hand, it has been useful for me to have the window associated with a dialog raised when I'm going to interact with it again.

I'm not saying everyone should work how I do. I'm saying not everyone works how you do. Your preferences are not objectively better.

Matt