I stopped at a gaz station while I was in a traffic jam, bought myself a can of RedBull, and cause of that I basically opened my laptop and started hacking like a nut. Again.
Another consequence of the RedBull is this blog item.
Whenever we design or redesign a platform, be it a development platform or a user platform, both what GNOME is all about, we should always take into consideration that we aren’t really doing it for just ourselves. Nor are we doing it for just the current generation of people who are active as user or developer.
When redesigning or thinking about a new platform, we are also (and probably mostly) doing it for the next generation of people. The dudes and dudettes who are at this moment adolescents and who will in a near future (or have already) started to create a passion for computers and software development.
If we are going to decide now that a GNOME 3.0 should be as API stable with GNOME 2.x as possible, we are going to give them what is current today. Not what will be current when their tomorrow happens. Therefore I disagree with Johannes a little bit that we shouldn’t make (big) API changes.
We should make the platform of tomorrow. If that means breaking things, well, that’s why we need to increase the major version number. That way, people know that it’s different. Does this mean that we need to change everything like a nut would? No. However, in my opinion it also shouldn’t mean that we should be careful about not changing any API. If existing API is wrong or even a little bit suboptimal, then a GNOME 3.0 should fix that.
(In my opinion) The GNOME platform shouldn’t be called 3.0 for marketing reasons. If nobody is yet thinking about the platform of tomorrow, it’s my opinion that we should stick to the 2.x naming. I don’t think nobody is. Let those people use that 3.0 as place where they can put their experiments and innovative ideas. Let us not block them for another x years. The GNOME platform does need this young and innovative talent.
Let us keep GNOME young. And do as much as possible to attract young fresh minds and ideas. Of course, mix theirs with the existing experience. It will be a win-win situation. Which is, in my opinion, what free software is all about: sharing and passing knowledge. Experimenting. Etc.