Of Linus, KDE, and mouse buttons

[John Fruhwirth]

Well said Evan.
An outstanding post.  Thank you!!!

...John

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> Robert Brockway wrote:
> > On Sat, 29 Mar 2008, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> >
> >> Normally I like to control my environment.  Perhaps too much.
> >
> > I insist on complete control of my environment.  Well the computer
> > environment - I'm still working on controlling the weather.
> As a result, you -- and other folks with your skill and interest in this
> area -- will find much to fault with pretty well all of the current crop
> of GUIs. Indeed, the debate into which Torvalds entered was the classic
> quandry of simplicity versus flexibility, and how much of one you can
> get without sacrificing the other.
>
> Such debates are certainly not limited to the field of IT. I know some
> people who would never consider buying a car with an automatic
> transmission. They say the complexity, added resource consumption and
> (wrong, to them) assumptions of user habits would make manuals more
> attractive even if they were not less expensive to buy. But using a
> stick requires an investment in skill and a love of driving that not
> everyone considers worthwhile.
>
> The people I know who prefer manual transmissions generally hate their
> computers and consider them a necessary evil that is required to do
> certain unavoidable tasks. They want to get in, do the job, and get out,
> practically, reliably and with as few impediments in the way -- much the
> same way many techies see their cars.
>
> Some people like the assumptions that McDonalds, Kelsey's and Swanson
> make on their behalf on the balance between taste, cost, speed and
> nutritional value. Others would rather spend hours in the kitchen,
> slicing stuff and sweating over a stove, for the right to make that
> balance for themselves by being in control of every ingredient's
> proportions.
>
> Nobody can be an expert/enthusiast in everything. In fields where you're
> non-expert, you're always balancing between control and simplicity and
> are often willing to let others make assumptions on your behalf so long
> as those assumptions are reasonable and trustworthy.
>
> There are people who still use EMACS as their mail reader of choice, and
> there are people who insist on always doing their own oil changes. I
> have yet to find someone who shares both traits, which at their core are
> very similar.
>
> The debate here -- the one Torvalds got into and (significantly) was
> raised in NewTLUG rather than the alpha-geek TLUG meeting -- is over the
> way that enthusiasts are trying to develop systems that make
> open source appealing to those who DON'T want the kind of control you
> crave. They're perfectly happy to let others make reasonable choices for
> them but would appreciate the ability to do some minimal tweaking.
> Complaining that GUIs are dumbing-down the computer or using too many
> resources, from the POV of the technically-savvy enthusiast, is to
> utterly miss the point.
>
> Open source already appeals to those who love and/or understand working
> with computers. The current challenge is making it appealing (or at
> least acceptable) to those who with little or no enthusiasm or aptitude
> for computing.
>
> - Evan
>
> --
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