Family punchups

[Peter Alcibiades]

I do understand Richard's point of view about Linux, though without sharing 
it, but if you all are not Linux users, but increasingly perhaps write for 
them, you should be aware that there is a very distinctly different point of 
view among a large section of them.

This point of view feels that if there is one thing they don't care for about 
Ubuntu, it is the apparent desire to "focus.. on the consumer experience to 
achieve a market dominance".  What we really like about Linux (as distinct 
from Ubuntu) is that you are not handed an expertly packaged user experience, 
and we are increasingly bothered by the perception of Ubuntu as the answer, 
when it is in fact only one of half a dozen equally valid answers.

This tendency has a positive abhorrence for Human Interface Guidlines, which 
it sees as misplaced authoritarianism, and that's one of the things that 
makes us very uneasy about Gnome, and makes us absolutely detest MacOS and 
Windows.  We can't understand why people really want to have all their 
applications look and feel the same.  We happily mix KDE and Gnome apps and 
don't even notice their different skins.  We often do not even use either 
Gnome or KDE, but something much more minimal like Fluxbox.  We don't think 
one size fits all in user interfaces.  We would say with Blake:

"One law for the lion and the ox is oppression".

Now, before you dismiss this as just behind the times silliness, consider 
this.  This is why Linux exists at all today in its present form.  This is 
also broadly the difference between Gnome, with its roots in Apple type HIGs, 
and KDE, with its roots in 'let them do whatever they want with it'.    

If you want to see this in action, fire up Debian or whatever in native mode, 
(not for goodness sake on a MacIntel under Parallels) and try Enlightenment, 
Fluxbox, FVWM.  Try Crux.  Try Slackware.  Consider that there are people who 
genuinely prefer these and find them easier to work with.  These people are 
your customers too.

So don't, whatever you do, think that all you have to do to support Linux or 
get it, is run Ubuntu.  Especially not virtually.  You will be missing the 
heart of the matter.

Peter