That was truly a fantastic article...it voiced everything that's disturbed me about Linux in maybe the past year, but which I haven't quite been able to put my finger on.
Many people (including a lot of people that have replied here already) first got into linux because they used Unix at work or school and wanted the same functionality and utilities at home. Most of these people quickly hit the greatest stumbling block of running Linux - dealing with the dominance of proprietary file formats and technologies. Nobody wants to be stuck with his thumb up his ass when he receives a binhex encoded Word document with lots of embedded GIFs attached to an email. So we create dual-boot systems, install Wine, buy WABI, etc.
From an idealistic perspective, this is a disgusting compromise. From a practical perspective, it's a necessary one - until and unless open formats achieve dominance. At least users "guilty" of this kind of compromise still know why they want Linux (while acknowledging the need for some proprietary software).
That's one level of compromise, one that was common even two years ago. Lately there's been a far more disconcerting kind of compromise in the OSS community, specifically in the user interface realm. It started with fvwm2-95 and continues today with GNOME and KDE. Most linux desktops look like Win95 with lots of graffiti sprayed around. Big cumbersome toolbars with masked Start buttons dominate the screen, and from them belch forth menus with 20 nested levels, listing every userland executable installed on the damned machine.
Why? What is the advantage? I thought UIs were supposed to be about speed and power, about the ability to quickly display needed information, organize it, and then make it go away. If a commonly-needed task can be automated down to the click of one button, then by all means let there be buttons. If navigating through seas of buttons and toolbars takes 5 times as long as typing a simple command on the console or in an xterm, why put up with the clutter?
The downfall in the mindset of Linux users can be directly seen in the downfall of usage of the command line. The command line is the origin of everything great and powerful about Unix in the first place.
So what I really fail to understand is the mindset of competent hackers who are listening to the demands of whining Windows converts - people scared by emacs or VI and who long for Notepad. Why are competent hackers catering to them? Why are you slowly but surely hiding an OS whose power and allure resides in its speed and power behind an inferior shell? What is gained when the community gains incompetent members?
The cheap thrill of seeing a cute penguin graphic plastered everywhere will wear off quick. Encouraging users to convert to Linux by means of a "friendly" and weak interface will only create liability, not strength.
I miss TWM - and for more than nostalgic reasons.
Jeff Zapotoczny One Slackware-running, libc5-dependent, package manager-free motherfucker.
Slashdot Mirror
That was truly a fantastic article...it voiced everything that's disturbed me about Linux in maybe the past year, but which I haven't quite been able to put my finger on.
Many people (including a lot of people that have replied here already) first got into linux because they used Unix at work or school and wanted the same functionality and utilities at home. Most of these people quickly hit the greatest stumbling block of running Linux - dealing with the dominance of proprietary file formats and technologies. Nobody wants to be stuck with his thumb up his ass when he receives a binhex encoded Word document with lots of embedded GIFs attached to an email. So we create dual-boot systems, install Wine, buy WABI, etc.
From an idealistic perspective, this is a disgusting compromise. From a practical perspective, it's a necessary one - until and unless open formats achieve dominance. At least users "guilty" of this kind of compromise still know why they want Linux (while acknowledging the need for some proprietary software).
That's one level of compromise, one that was common even two years ago. Lately there's been a far more disconcerting kind of compromise in the OSS community, specifically in the user interface realm. It started with fvwm2-95 and continues today with GNOME and KDE. Most linux desktops look like Win95 with lots of graffiti sprayed around. Big cumbersome toolbars with masked Start buttons dominate the screen, and from them belch forth menus with 20 nested levels, listing every userland executable installed on the damned machine.
Why? What is the advantage? I thought UIs were supposed to be about speed and power, about the ability to quickly display needed information, organize it, and then make it go away. If a commonly-needed task can be automated down to the click of one button, then by all means let there be buttons. If navigating through seas of buttons and toolbars takes 5 times as long as typing a simple command on the console or in an xterm, why put up with the clutter?
The downfall in the mindset of Linux users can be directly seen in the downfall of usage of the command line. The command line is the origin of everything great and powerful about Unix in the first place.
So what I really fail to understand is the mindset of competent hackers who are listening to the demands of whining Windows converts - people scared by emacs or VI and who long for Notepad. Why are competent hackers catering to them? Why are you slowly but surely hiding an OS whose power and allure resides in its speed and power behind an inferior shell? What is gained when the community gains incompetent members?
The cheap thrill of seeing a cute penguin graphic plastered everywhere will wear off quick. Encouraging users to convert to Linux by means of a "friendly" and weak interface will only create liability, not strength.
I miss TWM - and for more than nostalgic reasons.
Jeff Zapotoczny
One Slackware-running, libc5-dependent, package manager-free motherfucker.