Comments on bug 140214 - the removal of X utilities?

[Bryan Ischo]

> As you say that programs exist from 20+ years ago.
> Fedora is a desktop distribuition: it needs something new and useful,
> not something bit usable and bit known.
> Prove me that xcalc is better than kcalc or gcalculator, two programs
> that are linked in kde/gnome menù and so well known...

There is nothing about having xcalc, xbiff, xmessage, etc, that prevents
users from using alternatives if they want to.

X11 itself has been around for 20+ years - should Fedora Core get rid of
it because it's also old?

> This programs are surely less "famous" than alternatives included in
> desktop enviroments.
> At the same time, as written before, fedora is not used by experts, but
> by new users, so i can conclude that this programs are not used from
> everybody.

Fedora is used by both new users *and* experts.  Why do you say that it's
not used by experts?  I can see how one could easily say, "program X
should not be in the distribution", if one had such a narrow view of who
the target audience of the distribution is.  But I don't have such a
narrow view of the target audience - I think Fedora Core is for
*everybody*.

> So xbiff is an email client.
> How does it works?

xbiff is not an email client, it's just an email notification program - it
watches your mailbox and tells you when new mail is available.  You don't
have to be running your mail program all the time just to wait for new
mail - xbiff will tell you when you have new mail and you can run your
mail program to read the new mail at that time.

Actually xbiff is more general than that - it can show a "status changed"
icon any time the status of a file or the status code of a program have
changed, but it is most usually applied to checking for new email.  That's
how I've been using it for 10+ years now anyway.

Thanks,
Bryan

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Bryan Ischo             bryan at ischo.com                          N, R, 6
New York, NY, USA       http://www.ischo.com            RedHat Linux 7.3
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