Binary incompatibility of Linux distributions

[marc]

Michael M. Moore said:

> On Fri, 2009-05-22 at 09:15 +0000, marc wrote:

>> I run kde, mainly. A few days ago I noticed that when I run nautilus in
>> kde, and then delete the app, it creates a background task, x-nautilus-
>> desktop - and leaves it there. This is what I consider bloat. It also
>> happens that this bg task causes enormous slowdowns to kde and some
>> ugly side effects.
>> 
>> I just hope this is a bug.
> 
> That's not a bug, it's a feature.

Oh dear!

> That's how nautilus works by default.

I can see that thanks.

> Nautilus is designed to be the file manager for GNOME, and as such, it
> is supposed to provide certain features for the GNOME desktop
> environment, one of which is creating the desktop.

So the file manager also creates the desktop. That's two responsibilities 
and breaks well established software design principles.

> That's also why, if you want to use nautilus under a different set of
> circumstances, you have to understand a bit about how it works and what
> it does, so that you can modify it to work with whatever you want it to
> work with.

You're making this up as you go along. There's absolutely no 
justification for expecting a file manager to behave in an antisocial 
manner, which is precisely what's going on here.

It reminds me of Google installing its "updater" as a service on Windows 
without asking. It's loathsome behaviour.

> You can easily change the appropriate GConf key for nautilus
> so that it won't draw the desktop, and use it without problems under
> KDE, or XFCE, or with Openbox or other window managers.

Why should I have to change Gnome's Windows' Registry? How am I expected 
to know that Nautilus will act maliciously - knowingly negatively affect 
the performance of every other DM except gnome - unless I change some 
arcane registry value?

Hey, why isn't gnome a good citizen and warn me and tell me how put 
things right? Heaven forbid!

This is Microsoft-type behaviour, pure and simple. It's abominable.

>  It won't
> interfere with whatever other desktop settings those come with, *if you
> tell it not too.*

Ah! Obvious, really.

> You can't complain that something has a "bug" when it is doing exactly
> what it was designed to do.

I can complain about what I choose thanks. This is appalling behaviour.

Gnome is Windows incarnate it seems. Shame on you gnome. Shame on you.

-- 
Best,
Marc

"Change requires small steps."