OSNews

"This is what open source is NOT supposed to be about. Open source is about alternative and respect of the alternate, not about telling people off just because you're famous for starting a now huge open source development like Linux...."

First let me ask you... You say you've always liked Gnome better than KDE... did you use Gnome 1.x? Or did you only recently start using Gnome 2.x series?

I think a lot of Gnome users, who are Gnome users right from the start, from the 1.x series, feel in some way neglected. We are programmers, we are advanced power users, we used to like and support the Gnome platform. And all of a sudden, there's this whole "my grandma is having a hard time with Gnome, so it needs to be much much simpler"-movement. And in Gnome 2.x all configurability is removed (or pushed in gconf-editor). It's as if the target group for the desktop environment in Gnome 1.x were programmers or advanced users, and the target group for Gnome 2.x is grandma and grandpa. So, of course, the Gnome developers upset their longtime users, because they neglect their longtime advanced users, while adjusting the whole Gnome platform for some target group (grandma and grandpa) who, right now, is not using their platform. I'm not saying that Gnome 1.x series was perfect and I actually think the ideas behind Gnome 2.x are good, but the Gnome developers went way too radical about it. They definitely shouldn't neglect their current (and previous) users.

I believe that is the frustration that Linus is feeling. I'm feeling it too and I know other people are feeling it too. We, the loyal Gnome users, are pushed aside, so that the wishes of the Windows using crowd can be fulfilled. That's how it feels to me. But, of course, when I say it, that's not gonna make much noise. When Linus says it, it does make a lot more noise. In my opinion, respecting your original target group is just basic respect for your users, whether the software is open source or not.