A Critique: Getting Started with GNUstep on Windows

[Gregory Casamento]

Riccardo

On Wednesday, February 17, 2016, Riccardo Mottola <riccardo.mottola@libero.it> wrote:
> Gregory,
>
> Gregory Casamento wrote:
>
> > We all know our best experience is on Linux and BSD. But we do get a lot of Windows users who get discouraged because of the lack of updates to our windows packages.
>
> Before delving down in discussions about what to change and fix or wait for the new releases, it might be useful to just ask  Adam if he can do a respin with current releases or if there is an issues behind time and will.It should be in any case an improvement of what is there now.
>
> Of course, without insulting him.

Naturally. 

 

> > We are losing potential manpower by discouraging prospective users due to the poor experience we are giving them on Windows. This is not just due to the Windows theme but it is due to a number of factors.
>
> Did I ever say our windows experience is perfect?
> On the contrary, citing the fact that I work with GNUstep on windows every other day, I am quite informed about the issues!

Right and the issue is.  Not using some of these features is a really bad idea. Eating our own dogfood helps us fix things.   I'm now considering taking out the file panel temporarily until I can implement accessory views. 

> > I think it's unfair to color his intentions in writing the original email based on his earlier response.   I believe his intentions are good and should be taken as such. The issues in his video need to be addressed.
>
> I never said they shouldn't be addressed. In fact most of these issues are known and a good number is still open or has only a partial fix.
>
> But is the video the best way to get attention to these issues? And most importantly to get them solved?

Not speaking for Thom here but I believe the intention is to illustrate a users experience without any internal knowledge of the project.  His video effectively does that and explains a lot about how users react negatively to us. 

 

> Also, his intentions were colored to begin by calling stagnation and complacency, spreading FUD.
> But Richard wrote tings down best, how to contribute and the difference between stagnation and slow progress.

We do suffer from stagnation.  We sometimes cling to things which are better left in the past and by doing so we sacrifice our future.  We have a lot of optional dependencies because of this.  If I am to put a Palette in gorm to support webview, for instance. Then the supporting frameworks must become a hard dependency. 

 

> Riccardo


--

Gregory Casamento
GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant
http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
http://ind.ie/phoenix/