GnuCash in openinventionnetwork Linux list

Linas Vepstas linas at austin.ibm.com
Wed Aug 8 15:36:26 EDT 2007



Hi,

The recent announcement of Google's participation lead me to review
the list of packages considered to be a part of the "Linux Envirnonment
Component". (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/pat_linuxdefpop.html)
I noticed the absence of one notable package, GnuCash, and was lead 
to wondering why this list was the way it was.  It seems to include 
some obscure, rarely-used packages, while also failing to include 
some major, widely available packages.

For example: GnuCash is not on this list. GnuCash is a personal
and small business finance manager; it is the foremost such package
used by Linux desktop users. By "foremost" I mean: most widely used
of all such packages, most well known, the oldest (ten years old this
October), and the most sophisticated. GnuCash is under the GPL license, 
and is nominally an FSF-affiliated project.

I thought perhaps that desktop applications were excluded from this 
list: but that is not the case, as I see other large, complex packages 
listed, including:

-- epiphany, a web browser
-- evolution, an email/addressbook/calendering app
-- F-Spot, a photo album manager
-- firefox, a web broswer
-- gaim, an online chat client
-- gnomemeeting, a teleconferencing tool
-- HelixPlayer, an audio player
-- OpenOffice.org, an office suite

I consider the above packages to be "peers" of GnuCash,
both in the profile of the type of user who would use it,
and in the overall size, complexity and invested development 
effort. (At one point, a study put GnuCash in the top 1% 
of all open souce apps, in terms of developer community
investment, based on a lines-of-code count, as well as 
the extensive documentation, and multiple language 
translations.)

I would be interested in finding out more how the list at
http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/pat_linuxdefpop.html
was generated, and what the criteria for inclusion are.
Also, somewhat strange, unexplained, and notable is the
specification of version numbers included in this list.

Thank you,

Linas Vepstas





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