On Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:04:36 -0500 Tom H <tomh0665@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 1:16 PM, stan <gryt2@xxxxx> wrote: > > > > Just thought I would make an observation about the direction of Fedora > > after reading some of the comments in the OT morons thread, that has > > morphed into grumbling about Gnome 3. > > > > I was looking at the list archives > > http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/ > > for another reason and I noticed a trend that might be relevant. Five > > years ago the gzipped text for a month of list traffic ran in the 4 to > > 5 MB range. Today it runs less than a MB. > > > > Now, there can be many reasons for that: > > - the traffic has been split to more specific lists > > - people are using other means to get help, such as forums and chat > > - Fedora has become so easy to use there aren't as many issues raised > > - people are voting with their feet and deserting Fedora > > > > If it is the last reason, that is troubling for the future. And it > > begs the question of *why* people might be deserting Fedora. Is it > > related to the sort of grumbling and dissatisfaction seen on the OT > > morons thread? I know there is some truth for me in that. It > > seems that the people doing the work want it to be trendy, in some > > cases just for trendiness' sake, while I care more about stability and > > functionality. That can also be viewed as making Fedora cutting > > edge, and it is hard to argue with that. Perhaps Fedora is shifting > > away from the sweet spot of my use, and I'll eventually have to look > > elsewhere. From another perspective, I suppose it means I'm not > > keeping up with Fedora. I can view that as an opportunity to change, I > > guess. > > I don't think that you can blame GNOME 3 for that drop off; not yet > anyway. Ubuntu's had pretty much the same interface up to now. > > Come F15, I'll be giving up on GNOME (not because I don't like it; I, > in fact, like the new look, etc but because I want to vote against the > developers' tone deafness) and giving XFCE and LXDE a try - on Fedora. > > I think that we can blame Ubuntu/Mint for the drop-off (to what > extent, I have no idea). And apart from its good PR and cutesy name, > I'd put it down to the fact that it's easier to install proprietary > drivers and other non-free stuff. > -- I have never used Gnome or that other resource-hog (KDE). I used to use fvwm for a long time, and then when it got painful, switched to XFCE from Fedora 8 on. I had misgivings then, but the XFCE folks were extremely helpful in my teething problems and it was really a breeze. >From Fedora 12 on, I have been on LXDE. LXDE does seem to have an unclear development process with no mailing list, but I intend sticking to it for now. Christoph Wickert has been very helpful here, unless something more resource-friendly comes out. I doubt that though. I agree with your view that Ubuntu has good PR and easy-to-install proprietary drivers and other non-free stuff, but I am not sure it is that great anymore. Many of their releases languish without updates for far longer than Fedora, in my experience. Ubuntu is designed to make the switch from Windoze to be as painless as possible, and they probably achieve that. Speaking of which, I am not exactly comfortable with why Fedora (or Ubuntu) allow any user to install updates using PackageKit without any root access (or sudo password). I feel that this is not really right from a security point of view.... Best wishes, Ranjan -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
