11.23.09
With gThumb and Gnote in Ubuntu 10.04, Default Install Would be Leaner, Mono Free
Summary: Constructive suggestions for Canonical to save disk space and also remove a controversial dependency that slows Ubuntu down
SEVERAL days ago we wrote about the decision to put F-Spot in Fedora (GNOME) and also to remove GIMP from Ubuntu under the presumption that F-Spot can replace it for most uses. Putting Photoshop apologists aside, GIMP is a valuable program that should stay for the following reasons, as Ravi puts them:
- One of the ways of introducing people to alternative software is to include it in the default installation of Linux and have it readily accessible to the users from the menu. Removing GIMP would mean encouraging people to think that Linux is “not ready for serious users.”
- If saving space on the disk is the major issue, why not replace OpenOffice.org with equivalent software such as Abiword and Gnumeric ? After all, how many general users of Linux (or Windows for that matter) use a word processor or spread sheet program? And OpenOffice.org occupies far more space than GIMP.
- GIMP’s user interface may be out of the ordinary. But to those who have gotten used to this interface, Photoshop’s interface is out of the ordinary. (Believe me, I use GIMP for touching up and preparing all the images you see on this blog. And I find GIMP a lot more intutive than Photoshop). Bottom line is, it is a matter of getting used to.
- Agreed, you can always install GIMP using a simple apt-get install. But what about those users who do not have ready access to Internet (and there are lots of them out there who own a computer but rely on Cybercafes for reading their email and web browsing). There will be no easy recourse for these set of Ubuntu users who wish to install and use GIMP.
Another important possibility is to remove Mono and save a lot of space, as well as legal hassle [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Gnote would fit nicely in Ubuntu 10.04, so there goes the problem of Mono altogether.
In the Ubuntu-devel mailing list, Dave Morley has just made this instructive suggestion advocating gThumb as a substitute for F-spot.
On the whole you could replace f-spot with gthumb and most users simply wouldn’t notice, f-spot does organising no better or worse now, it’s only 2 big advantages I see are uploading to online galleries and timeline view.
Worth paying attention to is the part which says that “Gthumb runs faster than fspot by about 10 second on one folder holding about 69 photos.” We previously remarked on the poor performance of Mono by producing comparable figures (as shown below). █
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dyfet said,
November 24, 2009 at 12:09 am
This sounds like an excellent facts based approach to the problem. Sometimes poor choices, when clearly not being made through Microsoft coercion and malice, are still made as a result of ignorance. I think this is such a case, especially where it can be demonstrated that gthumb is a superior choice in ways that most matter to user experience. Performance, especially when we start to talk about arm, is also essential.
your_friend Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Everthing related to Microsoft involves coercion and mono is no exception. Mono proponents are just another form of Technical Evangelist. People who rightly questioned Microsoft’s motives and promises have been ridiculed and libeled in a way that discourages others from joining the conversation. Microsoft has been doing this to people for decades. How much more blatant can it get than when a Novell Vice President talks about people with a family to support should stay away from free software? These people are gangsters.
BN has been attacked repeatedly but Roy has never done more than present facts, quote the principles and draw obvious conclusions from it all. Notice that half of the facts above were assembled by referencing older articles. For pointing out the obvious, he’s been threatened with lawsuits, insulted in the vilest ways and had his career threatened. This is what happens when you cross a company as rich and craven as Microsoft is.
NotZed said,
November 24, 2009 at 2:12 am
I don’t know how big gweather is now, but I noticed last time it was installing it was a monster, like over 50MB. With bloat like that surely there’s more crap one can get rid of before killer apps like The Gimp.