Need to improve Fedora Hardware compatibilty & Gnome3

[Tim]

On Wed, 2011-09-21 at 22:58 +0530, Navdeep Singh Sidhu wrote:
> i come up with a list that i thinks lacks in Fedora & Gnome 3.
>  
> Like:-
>  
>    - Hardware drivers like for  Canon printers needs to be update.
> Some drivers are missing or not avail.

...[likewise with drivers for other things]...

Drivers really need to come from the manufacturers [1], especially as
far as closed source stuff goes [2].  Or for manufacturers to publish
adequate technical details about their product that allows someone else
to make drivers without playing guessing games [3].  Or for
manufacturers to produce hardware to some sort of standard [4].

1. It's really hard to build software to work with unknown hardware.
Even more so when the hardware keeps changing (as was often the case
with internal modems - the Windows user would get an install disk with
several different drivers for the same product, and the user would
either have to work out which one to apply, or hope that the system
could do it by itself).

2. Closed source stuff probably won't get included with Fedora, anyway.
Though there are third-parties which don't mind supporting this, and you
can use those third-party repos.

3. Many Linux drivers are made by programming enthusiasts, or coders not
employed by the hardware manufacturer, because the manufacturer doesn't
see the value in employing someone to support other OSs.  They need
information to go on.

4. Printer manufacturers can make printers that use PostScript, so that
special drivers for their printer aren't needed.  And, perhaps, the only
thing needed to suit that particular printer, is to set up the margins.
Of course, this makes it harder to include special features, but not all
products need special features.  Sometimes the standard features offered
by a common language, like Postscript, are adequate.  The same situation
applies for non-printer products.

> 
> In Gnome 3:-
>  
>    - Drag & Drop functions are really poor.
>    - At some places there are really need of drag & drop.
>    - Lack of themes.
>    - Missing the wobbly effect of windows in Gnome.
>    - Need to improve locations & organization of application launcher
> in Gnome 3(it is very time consuming to launch an application from
> start menu).

Again, this isn't a Fedora issue, but Gnome.  A little closer to home,
but still external.  And there's a bit more chance of influencing an
open source project, like Gnome, than some big corporation producing
hardware that's chiefly aimed at Windows, rather than everybody.  Though
there's a lot of ill feeling towards Gnome, not just because of the
radical changes in Gnome 3, but the general attitude of it being their
pet project has been around for a long time.

Gnome seems to be going even more off the rails, lately.  The whole idea
of a graphical interface that requires so much keyboard work, to use it,
is just backwards.


> I really hate when some people say that Windows have more in built
> drivers than Linux or Hardware compatibility of Linux is poor than
> Windows.

I've always found the opposite.  It's far more like that something would
just work with Linux, than with Windows.  With Windows, you nearly
always needed to install drivers from a disc, or find them on the
internet (if you could).  They only worked with certain Windows
releases.  Or there was other weird compatibility issues (no, you can't
use that sound card, and that graphics card, and that capture card, in
the one computer...)

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

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