[arch-general] We have lost the desktop war. The reason? Windows 7.

[Heiko Baums]

Am Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:58:49 +0100
schrieb <hollunder at gmx.at>:

> > Unfortunately, fewer and fewer applications are "desktop-agnostic"
> > these days. To install a gtk2 application I am usually asked to
> > download half of GNOME or at least libgnomeui and gconf. Gconf is my
> > personal favourite. Xfce already uses xfconf (btw I love its
> > description in the repository:"xfconf.. thingie" -- looks like not
> > only I am confused), why am I supposed to use two different
> > configuration databases? Why can't people agree on one? Why not just
> > save configuration in plain files, it has worked before...

> Well, I guess they try to 'integrate' again, all config in one place,
> but again only for their bubble.

Isn't there already an OS with such a terrible, bloated and cryptical
all config in one place database called registry?

And wasn't there a principle in Unix/Linux: "Everything is a file."?

Both were two of many reasons why I completely switched from Windows to
Linux years ago.

I really don't understand why now also on Linux configs have to be
saved in such gconf (still text files) or even worse sqlite databases,
which make those software nearly unmaintainable and slow. Why not just
stay with the good old text files which can simply be edited with a
console text editor?

I, too, don't like those dbus, hal, console-kit stuff. I even don't
like udev with its many, quite complicated udev rules. In the past I
could simply create a device node for a device and it worked and I and
the system knew how to access a specific hardware. I of course see that
udev has some advantages but the way it is designed makes the system
(the device naming) pretty inconsistent. I don't see the advantages of
hal and console-kit - I even don't know what they are for. Usually
hardware can easily accessed by the device files in /dev, infos about
the hardware can be obtained by lspci and lsusb, through /proc etc..
What is console-kit for? I usually have a console and can login without
such an additional daemon which in my opinion only takes system
ressources. Not so good on slow computers and also not the best on fast
computers.

But regarding the KDE/Gnome dependencies there are some applications
which don't use these libraries and which are built against pure Qt or
GTK. See e.g. the Xfce and LXDE applications. They are unfortunately
not yet perfect but I have the impression that there will be more and
more such software like Xfburn, Thunar, Mousepad etc. and that those
developers are open-minded for feature requests. So I guess there's a
little hope.

Heiko