Linux UI bounties project proposal

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 8:30 pm

If you use Linux and OSS and has gripes on things not working on the desktop without hacking around, read on.

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 9:25 pm

Pasted from my comment on Slashdot, in the article Gnome.org Desktop Integration Bounty Hunt :

IH wrote:

1. List things to integrate and improve Linux UI on desktop (KDE, Gnome, etc. UI frameworks)
2. Get IBM, Redhat, etc. corporate support and funding
3. Attach weights to TODO items, distribute bounty $ by weights and total fundings available
4. ??
5. Uber Linux desktop (no, not profits this time.)

My rationale is that, as pointed out by some earlier comments, Linux UI's inconsistencies and often failure to work at all without hacking things around is due to no central direction and vision for UI design. IBM provides IT services in deploying OSS in companies while commercial distros like Redhat do QA on OSS packages, but besides KDE and Gnome, there needs to be a more coherent vision and a mean to make it happen.

Continuing on, I'd like to add that OSS (open source software) developers do need to make a living. I believe in the ideal that software and information should be free, but there's also the dilemma that it's more difficult to make $$ off making OSS. It is my hope that by the use of bounties and corporate funding into a project like this, we all win: We get a push in progress in improving Linux's "desktop experience", while keeping OSS developers fed. OSS developers choose to take on what they want, so the OS spirit of freely code what you want is still there, while there's a list of TODO for develepers to draw inspiration.

Post your gripes with the Linux desktop experience on this thread . It'll form a base for... well, Step 1 above Wink

Guest Status: Reputation: 1

APM Standby / Resume not being present in the expected places in kde/gnome. Possibly expand to software suspend with the new kernel.