2008-09-26

Free and open source system first, usability and ease of use next

PJ from Groklaw commented on the Ubuntu Bug #269656:

[In reply to Mark Shuttleworth]
I acknowledge your amazing skill and energy at mobilizing and spreading acceptance of GNU/Linux on the desktop. And part of that skill is your ability to figure out what makes it accessible to grannie too.
[...]
The only caution I feel is this: the first goal is to provide a free and open source system. After that comes usability, ease of use, convenience, protection of users, etc.

To which Mark replied:

Yes, I agree. It's that feeling of being part of something profoundly
different, and liberating, that makes us tick. And the "make users life
easier" theme is a very slippery slope, that can be used to justify the
whole shebang - Skype, Flash, you name it. Walking the fine line between
selling out and actively furthering the cause of free software through
some pragmatism is possibly the toughest thing we do [...]

Now that's something, really really something. PJ just summed it up so very nicely. For all the whiners that are uncomfortable with Linux there is an answer: "the first goal is to provide a free and open source system". Even if some Linux distro is not as polished as one might want it to be, it is a free system, dammit! It it wasn't you wouldn't have a thing to complain about!!! And if there's something to complain, then it's most probably the famous "itch to scratch". Then better yet, instead of complaining just scratch it, *DO* something to improve the situation. Submit a bug report, a translation, a patch if you're skilled enough... Act, don't complain. Do as others do: cooperate.

Then again, if you still only want to complain, mind this: "talk is cheap". And if you insist on complaining, you're most probably a green, ugly, internet troll - move on somewhere else.

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