Yeah. A lot of Gnome feels like an edgy teenager going against the grain just to be different. No dock. No window controls. No system tray.
Gnome’s own research said the average person uses something like 5-8 apps IIRC. I don’t need some convoluted workspace system for something I can fit on a dock that spans 1/3 of the screen.
If the vertical space is so valuable, maybe they should stop supporting 1920x1080 as a resolution since 1920x1200 is better. Lol.
Jesus. I have my issues with how GNOME/GTK developers build software and decide what is and isn't important, but I don't blame them for not wanting to work with the author here, and for losing motivation to work on things that he was complaining about.
I also read the older post of his that he linked to, and overall he just sounds like an asshole, or, perhaps more charitably, someone who does not understand how social situations work in the real world. How you treat other people when you communicate actually is important. It might even be the most important part of interacting with other people. We are emotional human beings, not robots. He calls all this "tone", which just sounds like a way to trivialize the entire thing and justify treating people poorly.
It does sound like the VTE maintainer has some ego problems and sometimes doesn't make good decisions about changes to VTE (even one of the GTK maintainers seems fed up with him). But that's not a blank check to act like an asshole toward him.
More importantly, I wish people would think about outcomes more. Do you want to rant on the internet about how right you are and how stupid everyone else is, or do you want your bug fixed? It's funny that the author talks so much about how the only thing that matters is the experience users have, but then directly contributes to creating a situation where the maintainers don't want to work on the issue at hand. Instead, he could have been polite and respectful, and maybe the fix would have gone in much sooner.
To be fair, if VTE maintainer causes you to have a miserable day every day because your terminal manifests an annoying behavior, then you may feel justified on hurting VTE maintainer’s feelings. It’s like sitting in a torment chair with your hands and feet tied and trying to insult your tormenter into stopping the pain… okay, I can see how that may not work…
> Because this isn’t my first rodeo, I can already foresee the criticism of this article: people are going to focus on my persona and my tone, not on what matters: GNOME‘s shitty practices.
> Let’s make one thing clear: even if Satan was the one providing a patch, if the patch is valid and fixes a real issue, you apply the patch, period. Why? Because that’s what is best for the users.
I never used GNOME the moment that I learned it didn't have scroll sensitivity in the settings as a DELIBERATE decision. That was in 2018.
I just went to check again, and yes, even in 2026, GNOME devs are angry that you use a trackpad and not the specific mouse that the devs use.
Yeah. A lot of Gnome feels like an edgy teenager going against the grain just to be different. No dock. No window controls. No system tray.
Gnome’s own research said the average person uses something like 5-8 apps IIRC. I don’t need some convoluted workspace system for something I can fit on a dock that spans 1/3 of the screen.
If the vertical space is so valuable, maybe they should stop supporting 1920x1080 as a resolution since 1920x1200 is better. Lol.
And people wonder why Microsoft still dominates the desktop space despite how terrible Win 11 is.
GNOME was dead with GNOME 3.
I have nothing else to add, it's self explanatory.
I thought this was going to be about gnome's controversial design decisions.
In any case, I think the author is misguided, spending valuable energy in a futile endeavour.
Just use a patched version with your own fix. A lot of package managers make this trivial.
When I send code upstream, I don't care about it at all. If they ignore me, it doesn't affect me because I am already running my own version.
Nowadays, this is even easier because you can use llms to handle the possible merge conflicts during updates.
Same as perl5 maintainance. When incompetence meets arrogance, it's game over.
(2024)
Jesus. I have my issues with how GNOME/GTK developers build software and decide what is and isn't important, but I don't blame them for not wanting to work with the author here, and for losing motivation to work on things that he was complaining about.
I also read the older post of his that he linked to, and overall he just sounds like an asshole, or, perhaps more charitably, someone who does not understand how social situations work in the real world. How you treat other people when you communicate actually is important. It might even be the most important part of interacting with other people. We are emotional human beings, not robots. He calls all this "tone", which just sounds like a way to trivialize the entire thing and justify treating people poorly.
It does sound like the VTE maintainer has some ego problems and sometimes doesn't make good decisions about changes to VTE (even one of the GTK maintainers seems fed up with him). But that's not a blank check to act like an asshole toward him.
More importantly, I wish people would think about outcomes more. Do you want to rant on the internet about how right you are and how stupid everyone else is, or do you want your bug fixed? It's funny that the author talks so much about how the only thing that matters is the experience users have, but then directly contributes to creating a situation where the maintainers don't want to work on the issue at hand. Instead, he could have been polite and respectful, and maybe the fix would have gone in much sooner.
To be fair, if VTE maintainer causes you to have a miserable day every day because your terminal manifests an annoying behavior, then you may feel justified on hurting VTE maintainer’s feelings. It’s like sitting in a torment chair with your hands and feet tied and trying to insult your tormenter into stopping the pain… okay, I can see how that may not work…
> you want to rant on the internet about how right you are and how stupid everyone else is, or do you want your bug fixed?
It's much easier to ignore silence
But also, while it's a common excuse for inaction, you don't need to "work with" anyone here, you can just take the code
> Because this isn’t my first rodeo, I can already foresee the criticism of this article: people are going to focus on my persona and my tone, not on what matters: GNOME‘s shitty practices.
> Let’s make one thing clear: even if Satan was the one providing a patch, if the patch is valid and fixes a real issue, you apply the patch, period. Why? Because that’s what is best for the users.
Amen