Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 13th Dec 2005 09:47 UTC
Talk, Rumors, X Versus Y Without tip-toeing around the matter, Linus Torvalds made his preference in the GNOME vs. KDE matter quite clear on the GNOME-usability list: "I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE. This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. Please, just tell people to use KDE." Also, "Gnome seems to be developed by interface nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'." Update: More of the discussion here.
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Torvalds?
by ankitmalik on Tue 13th Dec 2005 10:06 UTC
ankitmalik
Member since:
2005-07-06

I can't believe he said that! Surely, he deserves the 'Troll of the year' award. OSNEWS trolls just can't beat him no matter how hard they try!

RE: Torvalds?
by on Tue 13th Dec 2005 12:30 in reply to "Torvalds?"
Member since:

Surely, he deserves the 'Troll of the year' award.

Yeah, that's really easy to say, without answering directly his claims. Yeah, it is a "strong" opinion ... or is it?

And when I tell people that, they tend to nod, and have some story of
their own why they had a feature they used to use, but it was removed
because it might have been confusing.


I have a very similar experience - am I troll now? Is an input field in the file dialog really that confusing? Is navigation mode really that confusing (I know it's there, but the default was changed arbitrarily imho)? Is $insert_functionality_here really that confusing?

I understand that such an opinin will undoubtedly lead to flame wars, but is this really his fault? If you really take a step back and look at it - well, it is an opinion, nothing more, nothing less, and the validity of his claims can be disputed or agreed with. That is, it is not just an offhand remark, it is an experience that many share.

This is so typical: criticize GNOME - you are labeled a troll, even if you are Linus. Even better: get modded up because you labeled someone critical of GNOME a troll. Way to go folks.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

RE[2]: Torvalds?
by on Tue 13th Dec 2005 12:32 in reply to "RE: Torvalds?"
Member since:

This is so typical: criticize GNOME - you are labeled a troll, even if you are Linus. Even better: get modded up because you labeled someone critical of GNOME a troll. Way to go folks.

Well, calling GNOME developers f--king idiots and interface nazis, no matter the opinion, is totally insulting and trollish. Now, if he didn't stick to insults and such, it wouldn't be easy to label as a troll.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3

RE[2]: Torvalds?
by Sphinx on Tue 13th Dec 2005 15:03 in reply to "RE: Torvalds?"
Sphinx Member since:
2005-07-09

Well said that.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1

RE[2]: Torvalds?
by ankitmalik on Tue 13th Dec 2005 13:31 in reply to "Torvalds?"
ankitmalik Member since:
2005-07-06

Surely, he deserves the 'Troll of the year' award.

Yeah, that's really easy to say, without answering directly his claims. Yeah, it is a "strong" opinion ... or is it?


Its easy to say so not because what he said, but how he said so! I personally have a lot of gripes with the GNOME interface and I prefer KDE over GNOME any day unless they get their interface issues sorted out. But calling them 'Interface Nazis' is crap! He is a troll not for pointing out the issues but for the way he expressed his opinion!

This is so typical: criticize GNOME - you are labeled a troll, even if you are Linus.

Again, since it comes from a well- known figure [atleast in the geek circles] , it is expected that he won't put it this way! Criticism is good but there is a way to go about it! You can't just childishly call anyone a 'Nazi' specially when you are Linus yourself!

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

RE[3]: Torvalds?
by on Tue 13th Dec 2005 13:40 in reply to "RE[2]: Torvalds?"
Member since:

> He is a troll not for pointing out the issues but for the way he expressed his opinion!

Uhm, if the GNOME people don't know the issues by now then something seriously must have been wrong. There was and still is so much noise around GNOME that by now everyone knows what's wrong with it. Everyone knows except those developing GNOME.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 0

RE[3]: Torvalds?
by dylansmrjones on Tue 13th Dec 2005 17:15 in reply to "RE[2]: Torvalds?"
dylansmrjones Member since:
2005-10-02

But calling them 'Interface Nazis' is crap!

Sometimes you have to do it the rough way. It doesn't make you a troll. It only makes you responsible. And they fcuking are Interface Nazis.

He is a troll not for pointing out the issues but for the way he expressed his opinion!

Noo.. He's being a responsible person and acting as such. There are certain drawbacks with Gnome, and it's getting worse for each version, so somebody MUST put an end to that part of the show.

Hopefully it did so.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3