Gnome’s own research said the average person uses something like 5-8 apps IIRC. I don’t need some convoluted workspace system for something I can fit on a dock that spans 1/3 of the screen.
If the vertical space is so valuable, maybe they should stop supporting 1920x1080 as a resolution since 1920x1200 is better. Lol.
In any case, I think the author is misguided, spending valuable energy in a futile endeavour.
Just use a patched version with your own fix. A lot of package managers make this trivial.
When I send code upstream, I don't care about it at all. If they ignore me, it doesn't affect me because I am already running my own version.
Nowadays, this is even easier because you can use llms to handle the possible merge conflicts during updates.
I made it very clear the point wasn't about me, or my patch, it's about *their practices*.
I have nothing else to add, it's self explanatory.
> Let’s make one thing clear: even if Satan was the one providing a patch, if the patch is valid and fixes a real issue, you apply the patch, period. Why? Because that’s what is best for the users.
Amen
I also read the older post of his that he linked to, and overall he just sounds like an asshole, or, perhaps more charitably, someone who does not understand how social situations work in the real world. How you treat other people when you communicate actually is important. It might even be the most important part of interacting with other people. We are emotional human beings, not robots. He calls all this "tone", which just sounds like a way to trivialize the entire thing and justify treating people poorly.
It does sound like the VTE maintainer has some ego problems and sometimes doesn't make good decisions about changes to VTE (even one of the GTK maintainers seems fed up with him). But that's not a blank check to act like an asshole toward him.
More importantly, I wish people would think about outcomes more. Do you want to rant on the internet about how right you are and how stupid everyone else is, or do you want your bug fixed? It's funny that the author talks so much about how the only thing that matters is the experience users have, but then directly contributes to creating a situation where the maintainers don't want to work on the issue at hand. Instead, he could have been polite and respectful, and maybe the fix would have gone in much sooner.
It's much easier to ignore silence
But also, while it's a common excuse for inaction, you don't need to "work with" anyone here, you can just take the code
> Because this isn’t my first rodeo, I can already foresee the criticism of this article: people are going to focus on my persona and my tone, not on what matters: GNOME‘s shitty practice.
And he was right. If I am giving you free fixes for your very real documented bugs, take them. You can hate me for it later, privately. At least that is what happens if you care about your users more than about your ego.
Sadly, this sane behavior is rare. And this is why the year of the Linux desktop will never happen.
In software the user is important. If you are the maintainer of a major project and you hurt the user because somebody was mean to you, you shouldn't be the maintainer of a major project.
Why does that point has to be explained?
> Do you want to rant on the internet about how right you are and how stupid everyone else is, or do you want your bug fixed?
What part of "I don't even care what they do" wasn't clear? I made my objective explicit: to show *GNOME*'s shitty practices.
I just went to check again, and yes, even in 2026, GNOME devs are angry that you use a trackpad and not the specific mouse that the devs use.