New GNOME Executive Director Named

Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Last July it was announced Holly Million was stepping down as the GNOME Foundation's Exeuctive Director after less than a year at the helm. Richard Littauer took over as interim Executive Director while this week a new GNOME Foundation Executive Director was hired.

GNOME's new Executive Director is Steven Deobald. Steven Deobald is a Canadian free software advocate and has been a GNOME user since 2002. As the GNOME Foundation Executive Director, Steven wants to focus on transparency and to better ensure financial stability of the GNOME Foundation. You can read Deobald's welcoming statements on blogs.gnome.org.

Further reading: Is It Time For a Change In GNOME Leadership?

Is there anyone here

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

That actually still uses Gnome? Really curious.

The window manager I use is not GNOME...

[ffkom]

... and definitely did not require a "Foundation Director", just some capable developers. I see why the Linux kernel or a large compiler suite can use a Foundation after years of serious increase in complexity, the colorful pixel gimmicks around windows - not so much.

GOOD!

[Gravis Zero]

The leadership for GNOME Foundation has been rudderless for oevr a decade. I'm hoping that the fact that Steven Deobald is going to be the first CEO since forever that actually uses the Gnome Desktop means that he will be working to fix the bizarre behaviors that have taken root.

At this point, I don't see how he could make things any worse than they already are.

Re:

[CommunityMember]

The leadership for GNOME Foundation has been rudderless for oevr a decade. I'm hoping that the fact that Steven Deobald is going to be the first CEO since forever that actually uses the Gnome Desktop means that he will be working to fix the bizarre behaviors that have taken root.

The GNOME foundation CEO does not directly control the technical direction of the GNOME project. Just like the Mozilla Foundation CEO does not directly control the technical direction of the Firefox browser, or the Linux foundation CEO directly control the technical direction of the Linux kernel.

How bout focusing on not sucking

[drinkypoo]

Make GNOME great again by making it more powerful and complicated again. Oversimplifying it was dumb. It's fine if you want to have a dumb-dumb mode, but that can't be the only thing you do and it can't take precedence over functionality.

I'm all for touch capabilities, but touch was never going to dominate Linux except in Android-land.

Re:

[olau]

There are extensions for the complexity, some of which are shipped with any standard installation of GNOME. Workspaces are built in. Instant keyboard search and execute is built in.

Cautiously Optimistic

[thecombatwombat]

GNOME has had kind of a weird few years. Objectively great releases, a lot of under the hood features people have wanted (HDR, triple buffering), big developments like sovereign tech fund contracts . . .

But they've also had budget drama, board shakeups . . .

It's an exciting time for the Linux desktop generally, hopefully they can really capitalize on that interest in the next few years.

Re:

[CommunityMember]

It's an exciting time for the Linux desktop generally, hopefully they can really capitalize on that interest in the next few years.

Much to the disappointment of some here, it is not, and will never be, the year of the Linux desktop. And I say that as someone who has used only Linux as my primary desktop for decades. None of the major DEs (GNOME or KDE) are going to change that dynamic. While those that support the apps that run the world (mostly on Linux) are a force, they are never going to amount to more than a rounding error in desktop usage.

Using GNOME on a tablet

[olau]

I recently bought a second-hand Microsoft Surface Go tablet and installed Debian on it, and lo and behold, GNOME actually works decently on it. Not quite as polished as Android or iOS in some places, in others it actually works better, but the fact that it's all well-known standard Linux stuff is just incredible. I was wondering how to sync books from my OpenWRT router. Well, I could install some kind of dinghy - or I could just write a one-line script calling rsync over ssh. Job done.

I don't have the weird

Re:

[Lproven]

> GNOME actually works decently on it

On a Surface Go? Touchscreen and all?

Is it usable without a keyboard and mouse? And if so, fully usable?

I have other questions but those are the significant ones. I don't know how anyone syncs books from a router -- huh? -- or how a dinghy would help. To me that is a small boat, either a sail powered or a rubber inflatable boat.

This is intriguing to me.

He's just not suitable

[greytree]

Deobald does not appear to have a single degree in English, let alone a vagina.

How can the GNOME foundation possibly consider him an appropriate leader ?

Re:

[serviscope_minor]

There's a certain kind of person, the type who will not ever shut up about "woke" who are absolutely obsessed with gender etc and drag it into every single thread no matter what. Please stop.

Re:

[greytree]

There is a kind of sexist, racist person who thinks people should be hired based on their genitalia or the color of their skin and not on their qualifications for the job.

They don't like it when DEI hires are sacked and people get hired on merit.

Now is the time for all those sexist, racist cunts to quit their pathetic, hateful woke whining and STFU.