I had made my rants organist Gnome Shell, as with Unity. I thought moving out of Gnome 2, an unnecessary adventure. I still believe that users should be left at peace with the tools and interfaces they are used to instead of asking them to worry every six months to adjust to new interfaces and user experiences. After all, users should have the ease to do what they want to do in a PC or a laptop - write an document, create a presentation, manage personnel finance, do image creation and editing, code a piece of software, browse the web, manage their chats and communications etc, etc.
I am basically that sort of an user. I expect that my creative impulses should not be drowned by a volley of OS or DM related maintenance tasks. I do indulge in maintaining OS and the computer. I like to have my PC running the latest version of everything, all patches applied with nothing potentially left for a cracker to crack. Not that I have a lot to hide, except maybe my passwords. I don't want a wannabe explorer to lock me out of my on-line accounts.
Giving freedom to user to pursue her volitions in whatever manner she feels right, or what she feels comfortable is of one of the freedoms that should be guaranteed. Unless, security is a major factor, this should be sought to be ensured by any ope source project. I, as a controller of a software ecosystem -such as the Linux Kernel community or the FSF – should not seek to dictate which software or platform I should be using, based on biased views on the project preferences.
I had this hate – love relationship with Gnome 3 / Gnome Shell due to the fact that I felt it was threatening my basic freedom to choose. It was questioning my freedom to use software tools, I was was long accustomed of using in the name of moving forward. I was simply unacceptable at that point of time – a typical case of user inertia. An inertia, borne form the realization that I will have learn and adjust to new work-flows from now hence forth.
I had a choice to use Gnome Shell or move back to KDE, an environment I had left back long ago. Alternative was to choose a few non – production ready Unity, MATE and Cinnamon. The latter three are still non-production ready, though good progress have been done with the development of each of them. Only Gnome Shell and KDE could be touted as fairly stable DMs, that could satisfy the demands of users who want rock-solid systems, that don't interfere regressively with their day-to-day tasks.
Major mainline distos like Fedora and OpenSUSE have decided to make a happy living with Gnome 3. Ubuntu was disenchanted, and decided to have their on Unity, which helped driving a lot of users away. Linux Mint, mulled and came with MGSE -an instant success - which they quickly abandoned in favor of MATE and Cinnamon With Linux Mint 13, they are unable to decide which is their main system. I predict that this is going to be disaster for LM users, and they are going to be driven out fast. Abandoning an mass-favorite like MGSE could turn out to be the biggest folly from the LM stable.
Ububtu, is sort of recovering from it Unity folly. It is now targeting something that is that will be Gnome Shellish in their 12.10 avatar. If that happens, and if that is effective, it will be a welcome development for all the Ubuntu fans, LM users included.
I also did rant against the gate-crashing of touch screen devices. But of it holds true today. But with the device prices crashing – you have Kindle Fire for $200 – users can now have the luxury to chose between a device of content creation (PC / Laptop) and content delivery (tablet). I too came to own a tablet, apart form a smart phone today. Both to little to help out with my content creation tasks, even write out a longish e-mail. Touch interfaces are taking over laptops, and maybe I will also end up with touch screen laptop a few years down the line. So, user interfaces have to evolve.
Linux Distros will have realize that Gnome Shell is the way forward. Hanging on to the past with MATE and Chinnom is esapism. KDE is not the main DM of any of the popular distros. Gnome 3 / Gnome Shell is what we have and popular distros will have to make a choice now. This choice is going to be difficult. But it will make or kill the Linux OS.
Gnome Shell extensions do break with very upgrade, and often you are left with a most basic DM. Ubuntu's decision to embrace Gnome Shell seems to offer some hope for us users. But, ultimately all users will look forward for an hassle free DM!
