Andrew Doran and Jared D. McNeill have announced in a mailing list post that they are starting a NetBSD Desktop Project with the goal of: "Given a NetBSD CD and a reasonably modern x86 computer, make it possible to install a useful desktop system in under 15 minutes, responding to only a few prompts in the process." Initial plans are being formulated on the project wiki page.
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Member since:2008-07-15
Who says they're going to drop everything else? You can't blame them for wanting to support X86 and X86_64 first. Those are, *gasp*, the most likely platforms the majority of users will be using and especially the most likely platforms for desktops at the moment. I didn't see where it said they were dropping support for all other architectures, or replacing the core NetBSD with this desktop flavor. That's like saying because Ubuntu only supports x86(64) that Debian will drop support for all other architectures too.
I never got the impression from NetBSD that they want to go mainstream at all costs. Come on, what're you ticked off about? That they're not using your favorite DE, or don't support one of your machines, or something? Or do you just hate *BSD, as quite a few on here do?
Member since:2005-07-06
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/current-users/2009/02/08/msg007927.htm... says "x86 only", not "beginning with x86".
I never said that "plain NetBSD" drops architectures.
Read my post again. I never said that "plain NetBSD" wants to be mainstream at all costs. However, "Desktop NetBSD" wants to be mainstream. "Desktop NetBSD" copies Ubuntu so much that it even uses the same theme, just the Ubuntu logo is replaced with NetBSD's flag.
Being an Ubuntu clone is not NetBSD's philosophy and I don't understand why "Desktop NetBSD" wants to be one.
Member since:2005-11-18
[q]They just want to do an Ubuntu clone with a NetBSD core.[...] I think they want to go mainstream at all costs.[/quote]
No, we don't. (Speaking on my own behalf:) Keep two things in mind:
- First off, NetBSD has traditionally been a general purpose operating system that works on any thing from handheld embedded devices to high-end servers. It takes time and work to keep it strong in all areas. This subproject is a good effort to stay sharp on the desktop side.
- Second, NetBSD is used a lot for embedded device development. If we don't keep up with the expectations of developers desktop-wise, people will build NetBSD appliances on, say Ubuntu. Of course, it would be a lot more comfortable to do such development on NetBSD, provided that it gives a good desktop environment.
[quote]NetBSD's strength is that it runs almost everywhere, including low-end hardware.[/quote]
And it still will.
[quote]Desktop NetBSD should use a really lightweight DE, like Antico. And it should support more that just one CPU architecture.[/quote]
You can still use a lightweight desktop. Part of the project is IIRC to make it easier to install packages at installation time so you won't be dropped in shell-land with very little installed. Both users of GNOME/KDE and lightweight environments profit from these changes.
Member since:2005-07-06
And what's the talk about making GNOME the default. GNOME as an option is fine, even prominently placed. However defaulting to GNOME works against low-end devices. The very least the "Desktop NetBSD" project should do (IMHO) is a DE selection screen similar to this one: http://en.opensuse.org/Image:11_1-install-006.png
Of course, to be in line with NetBSD's philosophies there should be other options, like IceWM and Antico added to that list.
(To make things clear: I also don't want NetBSD to become an openSUSE clone, I just like the wording of that screen.)
Member since:2008-05-26
Member since:2005-07-06
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Member since:
2005-07-06
I've read a bit through the mailing list and looked at http://wiki.netbsd.se/Desktop_Branding
They just want to do an Ubuntu clone with a NetBSD core. They'll use GNOME because it's supposed to be the "industry standard". And they'll sacrifice the famous cross-architecture idea of NetBSD to go x86 only.
Here's my take:
I think they want to go mainstream at all costs. Becoming an Ubuntu clone will not make Desktop NetBSD successful. People will go for the better supported "original" instead.
NetBSD hasn't even a recent GNOME build in its repository if http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=netbsd is to believed, let alone KDE 4.x (they re still stuck with 3.5.9).
NetBSD shouldn't care what they think the "industry standard" is, because in reality it's Windows XP. NetBSD's strength is that it runs almost everywhere, including low-end hardware. Desktop NetBSD should use a really lightweight DE, like Antico. And it should support more that just one CPU architecture.
Desktop NetBSD team, please don't spit on NetBSD's strengths.