On Sun, 2005-10-23 at 01:59 +0200, Christoph Sch?fer wrote: > Hi all, > > for everybody interested in the future of DTP/graphics applications on > the Linux desktop, a very interesting introduction to the Create > initiative has been published on Newsforge: > > http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/10/11/2055236.shtml?tid=132&tid=75 > > As it seems, the initiative addresses some important points and > obstacles in Linux/FOSS productivity applications. >
It's an interesting idea making graphics programs more interoperable by using common directories for brushes, and using the same hotkeys for the same functions among other things. I think for it to work it really deserves a project though, with actual releases. A bunch of guys on mailing list blowing hot air isn't going to achieve the goal. Better would be if someone just created a distro or graphic design live CD with relevant apps patched to have similar key bindings, similar menus, common folders for brushes, good fonts that Just Work across apps, etc. The project would mostly be maintenance of a collection of patches against applications. If it was executed properly and took off, the upstream projects might accept the patches. And if they don't, well a fork doesn't really seem necessary for front end patches. But I'll bet other distributions would accept such patches. That seems like a more open source way to do it to me. UI consistency across the important applications is something that is a little better in Windows, a lot better on the Mac than in GNU/Linux. But because GNU/Linux is open source (changeable by anyone with inclination and ability) and we have users more willing to accept change than those other platforms, it seem FOSS would be able to do a better job. -- John.
