Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Waiting for a desktop

Author:Eric Kidd
Posted:3/10/1999; 10:36:48 AM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 3/10/99
Msg #:3897 (In response to 3870)
Prev/Next:3896 / 3898

Unix needs to do two things. First get its desktop act together, so it will mean something to put Frontier on Unix. And second, it needs to embrace the popular desktops, Windows and Mac and stop complaining that so many people use them. It's a fact, just a fact, not a threat, not a problem. The more we work together the less of a problem it is.

Exactly one and a half of these two things will happen in the future. ;-) Unix will lean to deal well with Windows and Macintosh clients: my machines already speak SMB, AppleTalk and Netware. For that matter, Unix can already speak XML-RPC and can learn any new protocols you propose.

The Unix desktop will also mature--but neither Gnome and KDE will go away. A year from now, Gnome and KDE will be user-friendly, polished, thoroughly documented and well-supported by tools. They'll be wired together with CORBA and they'll even look the same. Some clever hacker will write a KDE theme for Gnome, or maybe a Gnome style for KDE.

This isn't an argument for or against the Unix way--I'm just explaining how things look from the perspective of a Unix developer. From the outside, it will probably look as if KDE and Gnome blend slowly together over time, with a few rough spots along the way.

We'll have some concrete proposals in the second area, soon, and we have no choice but to wait patiently while the desktop situation sorts itself out on Unix, or fails to be sorted out. Stay tuned, as I am.

Good. I'm waiting to hear about your new proposals. Are they related to the "View as XML-RPC" option in your prototype DG?

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