Havoc, you are completely right. The issue that I think everything keeps coming back to is very simple though. People who are writing the apps don't seem to want to write them in C anymore, it just isn't that exciting, and it doesn't have the same productivity. People are writing these exciting apps in C#, Java, Python, etc instead of writing them in C. Then you get down to the core issue which Edd points out. No app written in any of those 3 languages can be considered an official part of the GNOME Desktop. So you end up with all the exciting apps that use the GNOME Platform outside of the GNOME Desktop.
Personally, I see no issue with this. The GNOME Desktop works fine for me, and as time goes on, more and more of these useful Python|C#|Java apps that can't be in the official desktop release will be on every distro, so it won't matter to the end user.
I kind of think that is the point that Mikael is trying to make. GNOME as a project should focus on providing a kick-ass platform for developers to use to write all these exciting applications, and all the desktop related infrastructural bits.
Many moons ago I asked here what people felt was missing in the developement platform offered by GNOME, and the biggest responses by far were documentation and API integration. Addressing those two concerns (I think the documentation one is less than it used to be for certain things) would go a long way.
At the end of the day, the apps will do the talking, not which apis they talk to, or what language they are written in.
And speaking of voting with code, we are going to be releasing MonoDevelop 0.7 very soon. This is a very big release for us. It is the first release of MonoDevelop that includes exactly 0 lines of C. Initially we had some C for helper functions and for the docker. As gtk# matured, the helper library went away, and now the docker has been ported to C#. 0.7 also is the debut of all new solution and class pads and a brand new command system. As far as user visible changes from 0.6, there aren't a lot, but the new bits in the codebase make it much nicer to work with. Hopefully this release will be out late next week/early the week after.
Update: Havoc, a number of people have mentioned that you shouldn't let the /. trolling/misunderstanding nonsense stop you from blogging and expressing your opinion. Your opinion adds insight to the conversation, and giving in to what the trolls might want doesn't help anyone.
Posted by tberman at May 1, 2005 05:33 PM