The MadLab - Manchester Digital Library
Feedback from MadLab Gnome3 Launch, a talk was given by a Gnome Developer on the latest and greatest features of gnome3, however it was also mentioned that it only works on Intel 3D graphics cards at the moment, due to the closed source nature of the NVidia drivers as well as the ATI events these cards are not supported.
The room is basic - desks chairs and wireless broadband.
On a more general note the attendees were general linux and FreeBSD Users one user was from ArchLinux, 2 users were from Ubuntu (although one - the presenter was disgruntled that as of ubuntu 11.04 Unity is default, gnome 2.x as backup for users not happy with unity and from ubuntu 11.10 gnome fallback will be dropped completely. Other users represented Debian, Linux Format Magazine and Manchester Linux User Group.
I gave out old 11.3 Promo DVD's and I had and introduced the concept of the Retail Boxes. Comment was made that Fedora and openSUSE only exist to serve Redhat and SLED - open source distributions which exist to serve as beta software for their enterprise cousins.
I argued that openSUSE was more than just a launch platform for enterprise systems, and whilst I cannot argue for Fedora I would doubt they would accept that claim also. I stated that through the retail boxes my aim was to get openSUSE available in high street computer shops as well as online.
Discussion was made that Microsoft pressurize retailers to include Windows on their computers, that a real opportunity was last after the release of Windows Vista to target disgruntled windows users through NetBooks.
Comments were also made that HP have announced they will be shipping WebOS PC's where all documents are stored online and all applications are launched online so no operating system will be required. Is the age of the OS (Windows or Linux) dead regardless so there is little or no point in launching any kind of legal claim against Microsoft for shipping oem windows.
Many users were dissatisfied with both Gnome 3 and Unity I suggested that instead of promoting Ubuntu for those new to Linux they should now seriously consider promoting openSUSE instead. Those interested took Live DVD's and promised to take a look.
It was argued also that Novell and RedHat provide more developers into Gnome than Canonical have ever done. Ubuntu may have brought a lot of positives into Gnome in terms of desktop users but this is likely to change as Ubuntu switches to Unity.
Further from a developers point of view Canonical's submission agreement is quite vague in its wording, and if followed to the letter could result in Canonical using code in corporate versions, without the permission of the developer and all rights being transferred to Canonical's ownership by default.
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