[desktop-discuss] About JDS project

[Shawn Walker]

On Jan 2, 2008 12:11 PM, Brian Cameron <Brian.Cameron at sun.com> wrote:
> Orvar:
>
> > As I understand it, JDS is Gnome.
>
> Note quite true.  JDS is the "desktop".  This includes GNOME, but also
> includes other desktop applications and interfaces which are not a part
> of the GNOME umbrella.  For example:
>
> - Firefox, Thunderbird
> - RealPlayer
> - SourceForge applications like gtkam, gphoto, gthumb
> - FreeDesktop interfaces such as D-Bus, GStreamer, cairo, etc.
> - Other dependencies which are used by the desktop, but are not a part
>    of GNOME, such as Xiph.org codecs.
> - JDS also contains quite a bit of branding changes (themes, and code
>    changes to enable branding).
> - Other things I'm sure I am not thinking of.
>
> So, it isn't completely accurate to equate JDS with GNOME.
>
>  > And as I understand it, OpenSolaris will be using newer versions of
> Gnome
>  > whenever it will be available. Hence the beta status of Open Solaris.
>
> There is paperwork associated with getting new versions of GNOME into
> OpenSolaris.  At times, this does slightly delay getting new versions
> of GNOME into OpenSolaris.  The delays have been quite small the past
> few GNOME updates, but I wouldn't say that this will always be the case.
>
> For example, when GNOME interfaces change significantly in a way that
> causes things to break on Solaris/OpenSolaris, this can cause delays.
> This happened, for example, when HAL and D-Bus were added as a hard
> dependency to GNOME.  I think it took us a few months to get all the
> related issues sorted.
>
> > The reason Solaris is not using KDE is because KDE is changing the
>  > API and stuff, making it hard to support KDE. Gnome is better in
>  > that aspect. This is what I heard.
>
> The original reasons why Sun chose GNOME over KDE are:
>
> - At the time Sun made the decision GNOME was free software, and Qt was
>    not.  Now Qt and KDE is also free, but this change happened after Sun
>    already invested quite some time integrating GNOME into Solaris.
>
> - KDE uses C++, which is not binary compatible across compilers.  This
>    causes more problems for Sun than other GNOME distros since Sun ships
>    its own Sun Studio compiler.  So, going with KDE adds complication in
>    that you either support just one compiler or you provide a set of
>    libraries built with all compilers you want to support (probably gcc
>    and Sun Studio are the most popular).
>
> - Sun has invested a lot of effort in making GNOME accessible, support
>    Solaris interfaces, and meet Solaris distribution requirements (such
>    as documentaiton, translation, etc.).  KDE would probably require a
>    good bit of work to meet these requirements as well.
>
> There is a community working to make KDE available for
> Solaris/OpenSolaris.  I would imagine that Sun would consider accepting
> KDE into OpenSolaris if people were interested in going through the
> processes.  Based on our experience with GNOME, I'd imagine that getting
> KDE through ARC, and making sure it meets all OpenSolaris distribution
> requirements would be a fair bit of work, though.
>
>    http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/desktop/communities/kde/
>    http://solaris.kde.org/

I believe licensing still remains a concern for Sun as well.

Currently, developing applications with Qt so they integrate *fully*
and *natively* with KDE requires the use of Qt. This means that you
either have to license Qt, or release your code under a GPL-compatible
license. Trolltech previously had a note on their website allowing any
OSI-approved license to use Qt under the QPL, but has since changed
that text to require GPL-compatible licenses.

Thus, GNOME's choice of toolkit and licensing, I suspect, is still a
consideration as well.

GNOME also has a very predictable release schedule that makes it
easier to schedule integrations, test, etc.

-- 
Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst
http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/

"To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." -
Robert Orben