No more right click terminal

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 7/15/05, Daniel Roesen <dr at cluenet.de> wrote:
> The "we follow upstream!" mantra is also only followed when it's
> fitting. 

Indeed, there are several people who maintain and help develop Core
components. Those people all make judgement calls as to when its
appropriate to break from upstream.  Its not worthwhile to point out
that the policy of following upstream is not strictly enforced across
the whole distribution.  There is no strict policy...there is intent.
>From component to component i think its pretty clear which developers
are most intent on following upstream and which are more willing to
bend a little.  In most cases with regard to gnome, like the issues
brought up in this thread, its pretty clear the the developers and
package maintainers are intent on following gnome upstream as much as
possible.  The result of that intent.. is that concerns about
viability and usefulness of the gnome defaults need to be discussed as
part of ongoing gnome development if you want to maximize the
potential impact of your opinions.  If your goal is to minimize the
impact of your opinions and arguments... continue to discuss them
downstream.  I can't fathom why someone would choose to minimize
rather than maximize their impact with regard to an issue they care
enough about to spend time commenting on in a mailinglist.


> When having done so when I had to make
> a decision wether to go from FC1 to FC4 or to something else (because of
> too short security fix support cycle), I didn't see any alternatives
> that suck less. :-|

There's a tagline for marketting. "Fedora: garunteed to suck less than
other alternatives"
If you'd like to discuss more ideas for fedora marketting taglines,
there is a mailinglist dedicated for fedora marketting.

> 
> The terminal launch option now disappearing completely out of immediate
> reach is a major blow, once again. I really wonder where this is
> heading. 

No need to wonder... If you get invovled or at least follow gnome
development discussions upstream.. I'm sure you can get a clearer
picture of project direction and momentum.

> I wonder
> when will install twm or fvwm again as "powerful, feature-rich"
> replacement for the hello_world that metacity is. Sigh.

twm is still provided in Core and I still use fvwm in some situations.
 I accept the fact that metacity is not necessarily the best fit for
all situations. I also accept the fact that default choices have to be
made with a target group of users in mind. I also accept that its
realistically when defaults have to be chosen the defaults will not be
perfect for all users.
If you can't accept these statements as fact, you're head is in the
wrong space and you are going to be continually frustrated by the
gnome design process.  I accept the choice of upstream gnome to have
metacity as the default window manager even though it does not suit me
personally in all situations.  I do not feel its worth arguing over
defaults simply because my personal needs are not met with the default
settings, as long as its "easy enough" to re-configure.  I don't
personally need the defaults to fit me perfectly, but I need to be
able to re-configure it, and I desire for that re-configuration to
meet a minimum standard of ease.

In the case of the terminal menu item, its already been pointed out
that people are working on packaging it up as an addon for Fedora
Extras. And I'm sure fvwm can find a home in Extras if a willing
contributor wants to package it.  In terms of re-configuration of
gnome on a fedora system to move from defaults to "power-user"
configs, I'm pretty sure there is a path forward through the sabayon
project, which is in extras for fc4.


> I wait for the "shut up and go away if
> you don't like what you do" comments from the usual suspects.

Your complaints seem to me more about gnome defaults than anything
fedora specific.
Since gnome defaults impact more than just fedora, you should take
your concerns to the gnome project directly in order to maximize the
impact you will have across a number of distributions that provide a
gnome desktop experience, potentially making alternatives to fedora
"suck less" for you as well.

-jef


-jef"i think someone is mistaking assuming i work for sombrero rojo"spaleta