[gobolinux-users] Re: replacement for zsnes on 13?

[Rohan Nicholls]

My 2cents:

This distro has me returning to it, and I find myself installing 
rootless everywhere because I keep thinking "If only I had ..." and 
inevitably this is something that I have become used to in gobo.

I have been thinking a lot about user interface a lot lately, but not 
the typical form, the developer version.  Does a programming language 
have a good UI?  Does a distro have a good UI?

This last concerns gobo beccause it addresses them so well.  A good UI 
should keep simple things simple to do, and make complex things as 
simple as possible, and it is drowning in complexity which tends to 
happen quickly in many distros.

Yes debian/ubuntu make installing packages very easy, but when you start 
thinking about creating your own packages because you have some special 
need that is not met by the available packages you are suddenly drowning 
in the deb format and the debugging. There is no sandbox giving you a 
safe place to test recipes without worrying you are going to kill your 
whole OS, which is where slackware starts to go south.

But with gobo I was creating recipes within a day, and they worked 
beautifully.  If I wanted different config options for a program, 
download, add to the config options and away it goes.  There are times 
when things get complicated, bit it is because I am trying to do 
something complicated or off beat, and so it is to be expected.  (a 
number of common lisp ditributions win no points for the UI of getting 
them up and running. ;-))

The file system is inspired, if I want to see if a library is installed 
I just do a find on /system/links/libraries, and to be honest I still 
don't get ldd and ldconfig.

As to the being taken seriously, I don't think zsnes is going to make or 
break that impression.  You have come up with a design that flies in the 
face of convention, so your battle will always be uphill, but keep the 
good design decisions coming and acceptance will come.  Ghandi has a 
famous quote about the process that I will not bore you with repeating, 
but starts out with not being taken seriously.  I think it applies here 
very well.  As Paul Graham pointed out, good design is often slightly 
funny, using the Porche 911 that is a beautifully designed car, but it 
does look like a frog (in a good way of course).

Keep up the good work, and yes I agree the documentation is biggest weak 
spot with gobo at the moment (if only we could convince someone to write 
a book about it), and an easy way to upgrade the distribution, is the 
other (apt-get upgrade does kick much derriere).  I know that the core 
of gobo is in constant flux, but as soon as it stabilizes somewhat it 
would be nice to have some docs for poss. developers on what is going on 
in there, even if it is only to help with debugging.

Rohan

Hisham Muhammad wrote:
> On 7/4/06, Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com> wrote:
>> Hisham Muhammad wrote:
>> > On 7/4/06, Kristleifur Daðason <kristleifur04 at ru.is> wrote:
>> >> Much like the clothes you wear, the software people decide to include
>> >> in a Linux distribution influences what people think of them.
>> >>
>> >> When I see zsnes included in a Linux distro, I think: "That's my kind
>> >> of people. They must be some cool froods!" So before going back to
>> >> lurking, I'd like to request that zsnes isn't dropped. Even though
>> >> ROMs aren't included.
>> >
>> > Nice to read this, thanks. Unconsciously, I think it was one of the
>> > reasons we put it there. :) I always felt Gobo is supposed to have a
>> > 'fun' side to it. I feel somewhat negligent lately about not taking
>> > care about these 'little touches' like I used to do early on in the
>> > distro (Tetris in the installer, fading-scrolling graphic-boot, etc.)
>>
>> Just be aware that some people think that GoboLinux isn't a "serious"
>> distro! Of course they haven't tried it out theirself yet... but it's
>> maybe something to think about anyway?
> 
> Yeah, I do think about this as well. And that's why I've been
> dedicating myself to more down-to-earth tasks like the docs and
> getting the actual tools to shape. I do approach the whole thing very
> seriously and our primary goals were never just a "fun/weird" or "easy
> to use distro", which I'm aware that we're frequently mistaken as.
> Ease of use has to be a byproduct of good design, and fun is hopefully
> a reflection of the character of our little community. It's a hard
> balance but I think there has to be a little bit of everything.
> 
> -- Hisham
> _______________________________________________
> gobolinux-users mailing list
> gobolinux-users at lists.gobolinux.org
> http://lists.gobolinux.org/mailman/listinfo/gobolinux-users