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Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork
paleshadows writes "Pidgin, the premier multi-protocol
instant messaging client, has been forked. This is the result of a heated, emotional, and
very interesting debate over a controversial new feature: As of
version 2.4, the ability to manually resize the text input area has
been removed; instead, it automatically resizes depending on how much
is typed. It turns out that this feature, along with the uncompromising
unwillingness of the developers to provide an option to turn it off,
annoys the bejesus of very many users.
One
comment made by a Professor that teaches "Collaboration in an Open
Source World" argued that 'It's easy to see why open source developers could develop dogmas. [...]
The most dangerous dogma is the one exhibited
here: the God feature. "One technological solution can meet
every possible user-desired variation of a feature." [...]
You [the developers] are ignoring the fan base with a dedication to your convictions
that is alarmingly evident to even the most unobservant of followers,
and as such, you are demonstrating that you no longer deserve to be in
the position of servicing the needs of your user base.'" Does anyone besides me find this utterly ridiculous?
All the Windows clients here use Pidgin for their IM, and it's one of the clients recommended by IT for the internal IM server.
How is this any different than what Apple does? I want my pull-down menus at the top of my windows, but they are so confident that being able to bump your mouse against the top of the screen is a better UI design that they absolutely refuse to give me the option. I want a second mouse button, but they know that the second button leads to UI confusion, so they will not give me an option to turn on support for another button. I want to run on hardware that I built myself, but they know I'm better off running on their hardware so they won't let me. Apple has the same complex in spades, so don't diss on the Linux community by trying to compare with Apple.
Getting the job done quickly?
We are talking about an instant messaging program here right? Something that is used for communication with others? Just like cell phones, or email clients. I judge them on how well they work for communication and how many other features I want/need.
For some people, the more options the better. I really prefer to have one device to carry around, not 3-4. Phone, email, mp3 player, mild web surfing, all in one, but just hacking together something that does all of this "quickly" isn't most important, as ease of use, size, cost, and extra options make all the difference.
I haven't followed this whole story, but this seems like a rather stupid argument to get into in the first place. Mandating some annoying resizing text box for all users? No thanks, I would stop using a program that mandated something that ridiculous. A feature? Sure, maybe some people will like it. But I also wouldn't use an IM client that didn't let me resize the chat input box either.
I had this same argument with Mac vs. Windows. Especially with that stupid one button, UNBELIEVABLY retarded ROUND mouse POS they came out with (sometimes you actually had to look at the damn mouse to figure out which way was up, so you could orient it correctly. One of the dumbest ideas ever for a computer mouse.)
At least in Windows, there are several intuitive ways to do the same action, so you don't need to learn the one or two ways the developer thought you should do it. You could right-click, use keyboard shortcuts, go to a menu, drag and drop, etc. For me, almost nothing in MacOS was intuitive, while I could always just figure out some way of doing what I needed to in Windows.
Basically, it comes down to: Any part of the GUI that is Non-Standard should be an option that could be turned on/off depending on the user's preference.
"Auto-Resizing text input box? This is the coolest thing ever, everybody must use this and know what a God I am for thinking of it and developing it, therefore it must be mandatory." -- Get over yourself.
Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
in fact, why don't I post some of it: