

McGrath: Proposal for a new Fedora Project - antileet
http://lwn.net/Articles/408052/

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Klonoar
This totally freaked me out to see, both as a front-end specialist and someone
with the last name McGrath.

That said, I actually think it's a pretty slick idea. I've seen a lot of
different one-off efforts over in Ubuntu land surrounding this idea, but
nothing concrete ever seems to have formalized - perhaps Fedora could pull it
off?

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shadowsun7
The proposal is shot down almost immediately in the comments:

 _The really goofy thing is thinking that a browser is the best platform for
application development. It isn't. You're confusing a popular application with
its feature set, which are really two distinct things._

Also:

 _The problem for Fedora/Gnome isn't HTML5, it's Android. Android has become
Google's desktop, development platform and distro. Where is my Gnome Mobile?
Where is my KDE Mobile? Where is my Gnome Mobile App Store? Where is my Fedora
Mobile distro for HTC devices?_

My first reaction to McGrath's post was confusion. HTML5 apps don't compete
with native applications, and I don't see how/why Fedora should shift focus to
respond to this trend.

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Robin_Message
This is a good proposal. No-one is doing enough to compete with Google in the
web app arena. Where, for example, can I find an open-source e-mail client as
good as gmail?

As for comments like

 _The really goofy thing is thinking that a browser is the best platform for
application development. It isn't._

That is _developer_ thinking. If you think that, go ask your mum or someone
who works in a restaurant what the best platform for applications is. _They
will not have an opinion_ (unless they are also a developer.) The only reason
not to support the browser is performance, and as the article says, that is
just getting better and better.

As to whether it is Fedora's place to compete here - it totally, utterly is.
As a provider of free software, no-one said they have to focus on one platform
or even only on providing a platform. Again, no-one in the real world cares
about platforms.

Fedora or Gnome producing an Android competitor, that really is laughable and
a bad idea. You did see how Google withdrew the Nexus after the total lack of
interest and carrier mistrust? And some Nokia stuff runs Linux - how's that
going for them I wonder? Phones are _hard_ and require the kind of UX work and
corporate hoop-jumping that open-source totally sucks at.

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rwmj
_Where, for example, can I find an open-source e-mail client as good as
gmail?_

Mutt is far preferable to gmail (and I use both).

~~~
rwmj
Downvotes? It is a true statement that I use both, and I find mutt to be
better. If you think some feature of gmail is better then reply.

~~~
Robin_Message
With respect, the point of my comment was that _your opinion is irrelevant_ ,
so anyone agreeing with the thrust of my argument could well have down-voted
you (I did not.)

The point is not whether you or I think Mutt or gmail is better. The point is,
what do people use? Which platforms or programs are they using? Are the
alternatives realistic? Mutt is not a realistic alternative to gmail for the
following reasons I just thought up: You need a mail server, you have to use
the console, you have to install unix (or perl and cygwin.)

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rbanffy
I think it makes sense.

I'd like to deploy a server and have as-good-as-Gmail webmail and as-good-as-
Google Docs shared collaboration. Even if it's a VM running on someone else's
cloud, it's my server image, with my data and I may want to take it anywhere I
see fit.

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tzury
Isn't that what chrome OS is about to be?

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callumjones
My understanding is the Chrome OS is basically just launching Chrome as the
browser and then your web apps are rendered inside that. McGrath's proposal is
that the apps themselves are written as special web apps but can run with
appearing inside the browser i.e. the OS is the browser and the graphics
system renders HTML apps

