[X2Go-Dev] Bug#364: Bug#364: Please add config option to disable bubble help text and change the wording of it

[Stefan Baur]

Am 14.12.2013 21:16, schrieb Ricardo Díaz Martín:

>>     And again, I'm kind of disappointed that we're adding silly eye
>>     candy when there still are serious bugs to fix.
>
>
> I added the pop-up because if you set on the x2goclient option "hide
> windows on connect" (as I usually do with my users settings) looks like
> nothing happens when you click on connect button. So some users try to
> do again and again and connection stuck. It's no an "eye candy".

Okay, different use case, it seems. While I'm also setting "hide windows 
on connect", I'm using the autolauncher in combination with it, so that 
after login, the application that my users need the most immediately 
pops up.  So maybe we could hide it when autolaunch (--autostart=<app>) 
is used? Still, I don't see why making it a configurable option would be 
bad. Either your users behave and don't change settings on their own, so 
it stays the way you configured it for them, or you set the 
--no-session-edit parameter to force them.


> In addition, it's complete true there are serious bugs to fix instead to
> add this feature so you have some options:
> - Read in deep the code and send patches to fix them. And of course do
> it for free and using the time you must to be with your family, friends
> or doing some sports or something else...

While I'm not a "frontline" coder, and only do debugging when Mike#1 
tells me what and how to do, I do happen to check for issues and report 
bugs/oddities, plus I'm occasionally active in x2go-i10n (since no 
English native speaker seems to have enough time to check our English 
messages), and a lot of that actually happens in my free time, like the 
last evaluation of the x2goclient.exe that Mike#2 had asked for.

Also, I have a few things in the works that add value to the 
ThinClientEnvironment part of the project, it's just that I'm not 
committing the source directly but showing it to Mike#1 first, since TCE 
is his "baby" and he will know best where to add my code or how to tweak 
it to play along nicely.
Just two examples: One thing, passed on to him about a year ago, was 
code to auto-detect an X2Go server similar to how WPAD 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol) works.
Judging from a note I recently saw regarding the X2Go Session Broker, 
I'm guessing he's either using it or it has inspired him to come up with 
something similar.
Another thing is an X2Go ThinClient that can be booted off a CD or USB 
memory stick, for cases where PXE booting isn't available.
This is not for older clients that don't have a PXE boot rom - you can 
simply boot gPXE or iPXE off a CD on those - but for cases where PXE 
booting isn't available for other reasons, like:
- You are allowed to run an X2Go server, but do not have permission to 
change or set up a PXE/NFS environment (a common situation when someone 
wants to demonstrate X2Go in a corporate setting).
- You are travelling somewhere, want to connect to your X2Go server 
somewhere else over the Internet, didn't bring your own computer, only a 
USB key fob, and don't trust the Windows installation found on the 
machine you're being offered to use (if you can trust it, you can of 
course simply use x2goclient.exe in portable mode).

Looking back in the X2Go-dev mailing list history, I can see 17 messages 
from you and 113 (yes, one hundred and thirteen compared to seventeen) 
messages from me. So let that sink in for a moment before you continue 
barking up the wrong tree.


> - Fork the project and add the features you want
> - Pay for commercial support to fix the bugs and your wishes

And that last point is what I've done previously, more than once. Maybe 
you'd like to check on the wiki who sponsored the development of the 
published applications feature, for example?
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:sponsors
http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:deployment-stories:electronic-glovebox
Or the Windows "interim" x2goclient that comes with the old pulseaudio, 
that avoids the stuttering noises when playing Flash videos? That would 
be me (or, to be exact: the company that I am the sole owner of), in 
both cases.

Also, you might want to check who provides the Apple Mac Mini (that is, 
the machine itself, the power, and the network connection) free of 
charge that is used for the MacOS x2goclient builds? Again, me/my company.

Your attitude, however, is one that might force me to reconsider my 
investment of time and money into the project. Especially as the Mac 
stuff is currently of zero commercial value to me: I bought that machine 
only so that the project could deliver a great user experience across 
all three major operating system platforms (while some of my customers 
are Mac owners, I learned that they prefer to run Windows on Apple 
hardware, so they run x2goclient.exe).


> I don't want to be rude but it's an opensource project and not very
> happy when somebody use the words "silly eye candy" talking about the
> time other people spent for free.

I don't want to be rude, either, but "free" isn't a valid excuse for 
"bad". Nor has it ever been.

See, you started with a seemingly harmless addition of an information 
"bubble". Then someone else came along and added the session name. This 
is somewhere between feature creep and a color-of-the-bicycle-shed 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_Parkinson%27s_Bicycle_Shed_Effect) 
discussion, and I would like to remind everybody involved that we should 
avoid that.

We should stick to the K.I.S.S. principle, get the serious bugs worked 
out, then add new features.
I also doubt it makes debugging of currently existing bugs easier while 
new code for new features keeps getting added.

-Stefan