Re: Please assume good faith (was Re: systemd effectively mandatory now due to GNOME)
On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 01:41:29AM +0200, Christoph Anton Mitterer wrote:
> > Trying to say "[GNOME upstream] continuously try to [...] force their
> > blessings on all users." is just wrong. Nobody is forced to use Gnome.
> Sorry, I've implicitly meant "all _of their_ users". My apologies.
I write a backup program. It uses its own storage format, and people
sometimes ask if they could use tar files instead. But I am evil
incarnate and FORCE them to use my own storage format instead. Should
I repent and make my program allow my users to choose between storage
formats? Maybe I should form a council of users who would dictate
technical design decisions for me, which I would promise to be bound
by and implement faithfully?
Let me put this in another way: I try to make my program as good as it
can be, and I think that the storage format I've developed is better
than storing backups in tar files. I truly, deeply feel that using my
format makes the program better, and that offering tar as a choice
would be pretty much disastrous, because almost all of the features I
am aiming for are impossible to implement well, or at all, using tar
files as the backend. What you seem to view as a moral failing or
sinister plot, I view as a strive for excellence.
It is my impression that this is what is happening with GNOME. The
upstream GNOME developers have a vision of what makes a good desktop
environment, and are doing their best to implement that. Over the past
15 years, their vision has changed, several times, as they have
learned more and gained experience about using computers for various
things. Each time, some people like their changed vision, others do
not.
You don't agree with their vision. That is fine. Your reaction is to
accuse them of things, and that's not cool. Accusations, insinuations,
conspirary theories, or flippancy make for an extremely poor basis for
constructive discussion.
--
http://www.cafepress.com/trunktees -- geeky funny T-shirts
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