Re: [tlug] Desktop Wars Query

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Keith Bawden writes:

 > Why do some say that Gnome is the "MS Windows of linux desktops".

Actually, it's the Zork of Linux desktops.  "You are in a little
twisty maze of libraries, all alike."  Ahem.

As with Windows, DLL hell (as I pointed out to DC in a separate
message) is a reality for GNOME developers and users.  As with
Windows, GNOME has a completely opaque configuration system (gconf).
It's separate from configurations of the underlying technologies like
X11 and ALSA.  As with Windows, one goal of GNOME is to avoid
"unnecessary" user intervention, which is of course founded in the
laudable ideas of automation and interoperability, but also delegates
security relevant decisions to dumb and often buggy code.