Bringing fdo.org to the next level

[Jasper Huijsmans]

On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 05:38:46PM +0300, Ely Levy wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005, Jasper Huijsmans wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 04:08:20PM +0200, Philip Van Hoof wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2005-04-15 at 15:47 +0200, Lars Hallberg wrote:
> > >
> > > > Howewer, some formal metode for 'blessing' the standards that have
> > > > reached that strong position alredy would probably be good.
> > >
> > > Indeed. This is what I ment with my proposal. A formal method for
> > > blessing the standards that have reached a strong position already.
> > >
> >
> > Ok, I think most people misunderstood ;)
> >
> > Sounds like needless bureaucracy to me. Either a standard is widely used and
> > accepted, or it is not. What would be the added value of a formal approval?
> 
> This starts to get more like an irc dicussion than mailing list one;)
> I wrote it in my last few emails:)
> in short more information for users/developers working on getting
> communication better working on solving problems they rise.
> When it's not formal there is a large list of "standards"
> this way you just go kde and gnome are fd.o compatible therefore they work
> with each other.
> 

Ok, with the chance of annoying Sean even more (sorry), one more reply, 
because I believe you really mean well.

It sounds a bit harsh, but what you describe above doesn't work. You say it
could improve communication, but what prevents good communication now? Surely
not the absence of an fd.o board. 

The other point I don't really understand; free desktop standards are, by 
definition, de-facto standards that are agreed upon by the majority of 
players. Nothing will change the fact that GNOME and KDE make up 90% of the 
free desktop usage, which in turn gives them veto power of any proposed
standard.

If there is any problem with fd.o, a formal board is not the solution. The
only thing that makes fd.o work is mindshare from free desktop communities, so
any idea that will increase the involvement of core developers of these
communities will be a good thing. Creating an fd.o board is not such an idea.

	Jasper