In reading this reply to the article, I find myself wondering what the goals of the open source movment are, or more importantly to who those goals are aimed at. If I've understood the reply correctly, the open source programmers are writing programs with a programmer audience in mind. An audience who understands and can build programs and choose what libs to include or not, etc.
This model works fine for programmers. People write programs to fill a need and give it to other people if they need it too. If everyone who was using that program was also a coder and understood the ins and outs of the system they were using, that would be fine.
The problem this environment runs into is that the software people are writing is not being used by just programmers. I like to think that the Free Software and Open Source movements are not just about releasing programs for other programmers, or making an operation system to only be used by people who code.
I like to think that the open source and free software movements have included the rest of the computer using world in thier goals to provide a free and accessable operating system for ANY computer user, not just one who knows what a 'library' is outside of a big building where books are kept.
If all people using a linux based distro were proficent coders, I doubt we'd be having this converstaion. However, the popularity of 'Linux' is getting to the point were non-coders are becomming interested in it and want to see what all the commotion is about.
It's these people that a common UI is targeted at. Now, I'm not a fan of the Windows UI, and I'm not inclined to see it replicated in a distro, but a common, good, interface that can be used reguardless of your skills with a text editor outside of Word would be of conciderable gains in getting the 'average' user more comfortable in a distro.
If you purposly ignore that aspect, or say it's not needed because the people who 'matter' or 'use' the OS are coders, then your advocating the creation of an operation system made for and by coders and leaves everyone else out.
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In reading this reply to the article, I find myself wondering what the goals of the open source movment are, or more importantly to who those goals are aimed at. If I've understood the reply correctly, the open source programmers are writing programs with a programmer audience in mind. An audience who understands and can build programs and choose what libs to include or not, etc. This model works fine for programmers. People write programs to fill a need and give it to other people if they need it too. If everyone who was using that program was also a coder and understood the ins and outs of the system they were using, that would be fine. The problem this environment runs into is that the software people are writing is not being used by just programmers. I like to think that the Free Software and Open Source movements are not just about releasing programs for other programmers, or making an operation system to only be used by people who code. I like to think that the open source and free software movements have included the rest of the computer using world in thier goals to provide a free and accessable operating system for ANY computer user, not just one who knows what a 'library' is outside of a big building where books are kept. If all people using a linux based distro were proficent coders, I doubt we'd be having this converstaion. However, the popularity of 'Linux' is getting to the point were non-coders are becomming interested in it and want to see what all the commotion is about. It's these people that a common UI is targeted at. Now, I'm not a fan of the Windows UI, and I'm not inclined to see it replicated in a distro, but a common, good, interface that can be used reguardless of your skills with a text editor outside of Word would be of conciderable gains in getting the 'average' user more comfortable in a distro. If you purposly ignore that aspect, or say it's not needed because the people who 'matter' or 'use' the OS are coders, then your advocating the creation of an operation system made for and by coders and leaves everyone else out.