I just finished reading yet another Slashdot thread in which various GNOME and KDE zealots argue with each other. This most recent thread was about the way that Red Hat has packaged the popular desktop environments for their up-coming “Null” release. Evidently, Red Hat is providing themes for GNOME and KDE that make both desktop environments look very, very similar to each other. Both camps are unhappy and irate at Red Hat, and both sides are fuming about dilution and misappropriation.
I just finished reading yet another Slashdot thread in which various GNOME and KDE zealots argue with each other. This most recent thread was about the way that Red Hat has packaged the popular desktop environments for their up-coming “Null” release. Evidently, Red Hat is providing themes for GNOME and KDE that make both desktop environments look very, very similar to each other. Both camps are unhappy and irate at Red Hat, and both sides are fuming about dilution and misappropriation.
I have to admit that I laud Red Hat’s efforts. Red Hat is attempting to make the desktop technology choice irrelevant. They’re trying to provide a common and intuitive user interface that hides the complex and confusing aspects of Linux. Clearly, they’d like to see more copies of Red Hat Linux running on corporate, home, and academic desktops. Indeed, their future as a public company probably depends on it.
Having watched the progress of “desktop” Linux from the early days, I was hardly surprised by the comments on Slashdot. It’s the same old story: a debate of religion.
But this time I saw the situation in a different light: I saw the on-going saga as evidence of the current and future success of Mac OS X. Red Hat appears to be working hard to accomplish what Apple has already achieved.
But, Apple ‘gets’ it. In OS X, Apple has created a desktop that “just works” without giving up on any of Unix. And I think it’s…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
