Leonard Isham wrote:
On 12/16/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Leonard Isham wrote:
It gets really interesting when you follow the links and see exactly
what Linus said.
Did you also read the follow-up, where the developer who made the
decision stated categorically that Linus was wrong?
I've always thought it to be a mistake to attribute motives to
other people's actions. This is no different in Linus' case. He
shouldn't be attributing motives to other peoples' actions.
I did not state that I agreed with Linus's language or conclusions.
True. But you also didn't answer my question, did you?
Linus is well known at least in Open Source circles.
I am very aware of Linus Torvalds and who he is and what he
did.
My opinion is not relevant , IMHO, and would not add any value. On
the other hand reading the actual comments allows everyone to make up
their own mind. Which is relevant, IMHO.
I was wondering why Linus' opinion got quoted on a website, as
if his opinion mattered any more than anyone else', and why
his statements would help anyone make up his own mind any
more than some of mine might.
I have myself written two kernels for embedded
real time systems, and supported three others. Do
you think that makes me an expert in GUI design?
Do you think that my opinions about GUIs
should be quoted on websites as if they mattered?
Linus Torvald wrote a kernel. Does that make *him* an expert
in GUI design?
I think that the only reason Linus' opinion matters so much
is that he is famous. I am no more impressed that he has
an opinion about GUI design and gets quoted than I am by the
fact that actors have political opinions and so get quoted
by the press. Being an actor does not make one an expert
at politics or national relations. Writing a kernel does
not make one an expert at GUI design.
And, as I said before, I don't understand the need to have
strong feelings about what GUI one uses on his machine,
It's interesting that you chose not to respond to this.
I am reminded of the heated arguments years ago among
the "Open Software Community" about whether to pronounce
"Linux" as "linnuks" or as "lie-nuks". So much so, that
Linus put on his website an audio file of him stating
that he pronounced it "lee-nooks", which was the way
I had been pronouncing it. One would guess that his
putting his own preferred pronunciation on his website
was what put the argument to rest (I trow there are many
here who haven't even heard about the argument).
But I know it wasn't, because the only pronunciation I ever hear
now is "linnuks".
There seems to be a very deeply ingrained need in people
to be "right". And the less actual reason there is to
prefer one means of doing something over another, the
more obviously the emotional basis for the personal
decisions becomes discernable. The very most heated
arguments seem to be over purely personal preferences.
I don't like GUIs anyway. I don't use Nautilus to
"navigate" my directories (my machine doesn't have
"folders" on it). I like being able to have more than
one console window open at a time, though.
And as for Linus' statement that GNOME is slower for
directory entry, I find that *any* GUI cannot begin
to compete with a command-line I/F in speed for killing a print
job, for example. First I've gotta find where the
ICON for the print queue manager got put on this particular
GUI. Then I've got to move the mouse and click it. It
takes a second or so for the manager to display it's
pop-up. Then more mouse movement (usually all the way
across the screen) to select what job to kill. Two command
lines on whichever console window I'm using, and I'm done.
So speed is not the real issue. The real issue is personal
preference. (I usually use the graphical I/F for killing
a print job, BTW.)
And as the ancient Romans said "De gustibus non disputandum
est." Except that there est a lot of disputandum over
gustibus among and within the "Free Software Community".
BTW, a community is a collection of people who live in
a certain locale and are subject to the same laws.
Mike
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