Re: A lot of choice is not always good
On Sun, 11 Aug 2002 22:06:02 -0700 (PDT), Dr Nick Jacobs wrote:
>
>--- Gary Turner <kk5st@swbell.net> wrote:
>> On Sun, 11 Aug 2002 13:35:57 -0700 (PDT), Dr Nick Jacobs
>> wrote:
>(about the 10 different ftp servers in Woody)
>
>>You may want to give this a bit more thought.
<snip>
>>Some folks might argue that there is a duplication of functionality here.
>>I wouldn't.
>
>The comparison is not valid, because the wide range
>of vehicles on the market offer different tradeoffs
>among price, performance, comfort, compactness,
>and capacity. There is much less variation in
>what an ftp daemon can provide.
It is perfectly valid. The degree that they vary is a non-issue. What
matters is that there is a difference that someone, somewhere, felt was
important enough to make an investment in. If one of those that you
would put beyond the pale has a function or characteristic that someone
needs, regardless of how trivial you think it is, what good is done by
removing it from the distro?
>My original message
>made clear that I think there may be room for more
>than one. But there are 10. TEN. I'm saying that
>somebody could enhance the value of Debian by
>figuring out which 5 could be eliminated from
>the distro.
Crap! Debian's (or any market's, for that matter) value is enhanced by
the availability multiple, even superfluous, choices. It's called
freedom of choice---even when the choices are trivial. You're worried
by 10 options? Wait 'til you look for IRC (chat) applications. As I
recall, there were 48 to choose from.
Maybe hyperbole in this case, I remember reading somewhere: "All great
evils begin with good intentions."
--
gt kk5st@swbell.net
It ain't so much what you don't know that gets you in trouble---
it's what you do know that ain't so.--unk
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