Family punchups

[Devin Asay]

On Mar 23, 2007, at 3:38 PM, Richmond Mathewson wrote:

> Why do I have a "funny feeling" that as Ubuntu seems
> to gain Linux dominance it also seems to be acquiring
> some rather unpleasant facets previously only seen
> with commercial operating system?
>
> It has "climbed into bed with Google" - who next we
> wonder ?
>
> All you lovers of liberty and non-conformity, methinks
> tis time to move on elsewhere!

And while we're at it...

I should be able to drive on whatever bl***y side of the street I  
want to.
I want to be surprised when I turn on one of the water faucets in the  
shower.
I don't care if the > button on my video player goes forward,  
backward, stops or records.
I should be able to say "Goodbye" when I answer the phone and expect  
the person on the other end not to be confused.
I want my mouse cursor to move to the right when I move it away from me.

;-)

Seriously folks, let's not confuse conformity with convention. For  
the vast majority of computer users standardized interfaces is a  
productivity multiplier. There simply will not be widespread adoption  
of Linux (or any other OS) without a well designed, widely-used GUI  
with consistently applied conventions. And do you really believe that  
all other Linux flavors will wither away? To me the emergence of a  
dominant Linux distro is a win-win for everybody. More users = more  
support for the underlying OS.

Full disclosure: I haven't installed Linux (yet). But when I do I'll  
probably go with Ubuntu, with nary an ill thought for users of other  
distros.

Cheers.

Devin

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University