desktop icons

[Joe Klemmer]

On Sun, 2006-04-23 at 19:06 +1000, roger wrote:

> > > Is that going to change for final 4.4 release? I don't wanna troll or
> > > anything, but it renders those desktop icons unusable for me.
> >
> > Sorry, I should have been more clear: it's possible, but I don't want to
> > do it.  It's a silly pref for little gain.
> >
> I very much like this icon feature (for minimized applications) and definitely 
> wouldn't say that it could be unusable because of the icon text (hard coded) 
> white background. However I don't think that a request for having this 
> background transparent or color-configurable is a silly one.

	Here we see one of the aspects of FLOSS that is both it's strength and
it's perceived weakness.

1) User wants some feature added/changed/tweaked
2) Developer is "disinclined to acquiesce" to the request

	So now what?  The user can either patch the code themselves or hire
someone to do it.  Users are not at the mercy of the developers in the
sense that they are with proprietary/closed software.  Some see this as
a failing of FLOSS.  But more and more people are realizing that this is
it's strength.

	In this specific case, if none of the people wanting this feature can
do the coding themselves, they could offer something to have it changed.
A reasonable fee (say, $25) or a trade of services/goods.  In most cases
this will work out to the benefit of both parties.

	Oh, and before I forget...  I'm against making such a trivial change in
the code unless the code could be changed to have a transparent
background for the iconified apps.

Joe