

What to do about GNU? - profquail
http://smalltalk.gnu.org/blog/bonzinip/what-do-about-gnu

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mjn
I quite like the idea to separate the GNU and FSF labels and approaches to
development. The GNU projects working together in more integrated fashion is
closer to the original idea of an integrated "GNU system". But GNU has also
accumulated a lot of more standalone projects, so instead of axing them or
adding unnecessary dependencies by trying to graft them together, I like the
idea of transitioning them to be "FSF" projects, each managed by their own
teams, with the FSF serving in a support role to provide resources, publicity,
and possibly funds.

~~~
rtpg
I don't necessarily think it's about dependencies, but more about the fact
that it's impractical to have 1 guy per project considering all the small
software now under their umbrella.

Regrouping things together and saying, for example, this one guy is the head
of text processing means that he becomes the go-to guy for all the 1-logical-
unit software that goes into that group. While traffic per project might be
small, over all the projects it would be enough to warrant assigning a guy to
it.

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jlgreco
I really think that GNU should cut off GNOME, not make it part of a pruned
core group of GNU projects. Under his proposal (focus on
development/build/POSIX/GNOME) GNOME _really_ seems like the odd one out.

~~~
joe_the_user
Well, there are different parts to Gnome.

There's Gnome the window manager library and there's Gnome the "Graphic
Environment" the shell and related applications (Gnome-shell, Nautilus, etc).

Gnome the window management library would make a great thing to put within a
tighter GNU. It is the basis of Xfce and Ubuntu Unity as well as the Gnome
Shell. Taking the underlying library out of the current tug-of-war over
interfaces between these environments would be nice. And I realize there's
also the Gnome 2.0/Gnome 3.0 issue in libraries but I'd say a more neutral
umbrella would still be useful.

~~~
oinksoft
Just one small nit to pick, Xfce uses the project's own window manager, xfwm.
Xfce and GNOME have their glib/GTK+ core in common.

~~~
zanny
Unity also uses compiz instead of Mutter. He was talking about gtk and the
support libraries, where you split off Gnome Shell the desktop and leave gtk
the toolkit.

------
jey
Context: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4956899>

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bobsy
Do fsf make any impact on everyday computer users?

Take mobiles and tablets, all I see is walled gardens created by large
businesses. The longer you use a device the more you invest into it and the
more locked in you become.

I would have thought this would be an area which fsf could make a difference
in. Instead of a solution I get the impression that fsf would just support a
gnu mobile os which would do nothing but create another silo for locked in
content and purchases.

~~~
zanny
Ubuntu Phone is going to be running on top of glibc and the regular GNU
coreutils.

You can also stick Plasma Active from KDE on top of most phone hardware, given
driver support, and get another mobile OS running on top of GNU.

The FSF isn't supposed to be an OS company. They are a foundation for free
software. They wanted to make a POSIX compliant free *nix, and did. Their
stuff also happens to work with Linux by design. You can take it or leave it,
but they aren't a commercial entity to push consumer adoption.

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stcredzero
_> There are too many projects in GNU. Micromanagement is impossible at this
scale, therefore nobody really tracks them. This has many problems: the
signal-to-noise ratio in the list of GNU software projects is low, the
different projects are not as coherent as they could be, there is little or no
mentoring for new GNU maintainers, and so on._

Somebody should curate GNU and come out with the subset that's signal minus
the noise. One could argue that this is what distros are for, but there really
needs to be something upstream of the distros. Likewise, there's Debian, which
is great, but perhaps there needs to be something else that does a different
level of curation.

~~~
zanny
In the modern world most of those projects hosted by GNU should have ended up
on Sourceforge / Github / etc anyway. A GNU hosted project should be a blessed
core component of the GNU OS, not a peripheral like a chess program.

~~~
yakiv
Github is maybe lacking for a semi-major free software project looking to
create a web presence. It does have source hosting, projects pages, and a bug-
tracking system, but it doesn't let you upload builds for downloading any more
(without a bit of hackery). There are probably other features that would be
useful too, like having some sort of forum for users. Github is also kind of
cluttered with small projects and forks. It maybe has kind of a low signal-to-
noise ratio.

And Sourceforge is . . . Sourceforge.

It might be useful for there to be a website that would fill in the gaps. It
would provide semi-major free software projects with the tools and hosting to
create real web presences. It wouldn't even necessarily have to provide source
hosting.

(Edited twice.)

~~~
zanny
Launchpad?

------
orangethirty
I think GNU needs to re-launch. Not re-invent itself, or re-do things. Just
re-launch.

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breck
Step one should be to rebrand itself with a less obtuse word.

~~~
yakiv
You know, that might actually be a good idea. Sounding more hip (without
sounding stupid) could actually help. gnu.org could also use some serious
redesign. Brand is important.

Also, fsf.org doesn't immediately scream at you what the FSF is and why you
should care. They might want to work on that.

~~~
alecdbrooks
I agree on the fsf.org observation. If you look at the EFF as a comparison,
their website has the tagline "Defending your rights in a digital world,"
which makes their mission clear.

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lmm
Isn't gnome in serious trouble right now, losing developers, users and
distributions? Even leaving aside my personal views on the software, "the
GNOME project is clearly a successful community, and we all should learn from
it" is at odds with the impression I've got from e.g.
[http://blogs.gnome.org/otte/2012/07/27/staring-into-the-
abys...](http://blogs.gnome.org/otte/2012/07/27/staring-into-the-abyss/)

------
asadotzler
The first thing I'd do is rename it. I'm not kidding. Inside jokes are fine
when they're inside jokes, but when they're the actual face of the project,
all they do is alienate outsiders.

