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.
Thread beginning with comment 72011
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE: Torvalds?
by on Tue 13th Dec 2005 12:30 UTC 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[3]: Torvalds?
by CrimsonScythe on Tue 13th Dec 2005 22:25 in reply to "RE[2]: Torvalds?"
CrimsonScythe Member since:
2005-07-10

I think you need to read those emails again. He's saying that GNOME is treating their users as idiots, not that their developers are idiots. I can't really see why anybody modded you up for that. If they actually read TFA, that is...

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2

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