Mozilla Thunderbird

[Keith Irwin]

On Sun, 2005-01-02 at 14:56 +1000, CB wrote:
> poptones wrote:
> > 
> > Example: I just selected "complete removal" of evolution server. Here's
> > what else I lose:
> > 
> > gaim
> > gnome applets
> > gnome panel (!)
> > gnome panel data...
> > 
> > How useful is gnome if you don't have the control panel anymore? Might
> > as well go back to blackbox, or even IceWM. And as the integration
> > "evolves" then where does it end? Removing the silly address book
> > predicates abandoning the entire gnome desktop?

> If the gnome guys really are planning to extract the data handling for 
> PIM-type stuff into the desktop, they really ought to do in an 
> app-neutral way imo.

But aren't they?  If Gaim (or whoever patches it for Gnome integration)
chooses to make use of the lib-addressbook library, then that's their
choice.

It's like doing an apt-get remove libc and complaining that the entire
os depends on it (even the Java VM).  If someone comes in and mucks with
libc, well, then where would we be?

We'd be in a bad spot, that's for sure.

Is it reasonable for us to say, "Well, I really like those PIM apps, but
the fact that they all depend on a standard set of PIM libraries, I
don't know, scares me."

Or is it reasonable for us to say, "Well, I have to enter my contact
information in once for my email app, again for my calendar app, oh, and
a third time for my IM app, and I have this cool PDA app ... make that
four times I have to enter the info."

But all this is neither here nor there, really, just part of what it
means to build and run a modern desktop environment.  I *suppose*
everything could be statically linked....

In the end, what the Gnome folks are trying to do, I think, is make the
desktop easy to use and that goal drives their technology choices.  If
all official gnome apps interact with contact information in the same
way, then that's a big win for users.  If in so doing, they also take
care to learn from Microsoft's security mistakes, then that's also a big
win for users.  Eh? ;)

Keith

> I don't like to carp from the sidelines as I don't have the skills to 
> contribute myself. But linux is often heavily promoted by its advocates 
> as an alternative to the bad practises of Microsoft, and it would seem a 
> shame to see it's appeal being diluted by adoption of those very 
> practises. If that's what's happening, which I can't claim to know as I 
> haven't looked into the gnome plans in any detail.
> 
>