Ubuntu is under attack

[Peter Garrett]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 20:13:41 -0500
"Michael P. Soulier" <msoulier at digitaltorque.ca> wrote:

> On 12/17/05, Mike Bird <mgb-ubuntu at yosemite.net> wrote:
> > There are people who believe that limiting user choices to that
> > dictated by their personal religion is THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
> > (Capitals in their thoughts.)  They have applied their doctrine
> > to Gnome and Fedora, and have now started on Ubuntu.
> >
> > I don't claim that their purpose is to harm Ubuntu.
> >
> > I do claim that their approach is fundamentally flawed and
> > incompatible with software freedom and will harm Ubuntu if
> > not stopped.
> 
> Agreed. Gnome is near uselessness because it's been dumbed-down to the
> lowest common denominator. I now just run fluxbox, and quite honestly,
> I feel somewhat betrayed by something that I used to believe in.
> 
> Mike

 As it happens, I'm running fluxbox as I type this :)

There's a comments page for the "MenusRevisited" page I linked, if you
want to contribute suggestions and criticisms

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MenusRevisited/Comments

I'm also concerned about the direction of Gnome: it could be great, but I
fear many will desert it, if they feel disenfranchised by over-rigid design
decisions. This could happen to Ubuntu as well - which is why discussion
of these issues is important on this list, and elsewhere.

While making the GUI as approachable as possible is a laudable aim,
removing useful functionality for the sake of simplicity is  a trap.

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all
the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. - Abraham
Lincoln"

Consideration of this quote is left, as they say, "As an exercise for the
reader"

Peter


-- 
Unix is hard to learn. The process of learning it is one of multiple small
epiphanies. -- Neal Stephenson