Eric Raymond claims Unity and Gnome3 are 'Vile'

New blog post: You know, maybe Linux people should just give up on "user friendliness" after all, because the crap we're emitting these days by trying for it is truly vile.Armed and Dangerous » Blog Archive » Ubuntu and GNOME jump the sharkUbuntu and GNOME jump the shark. I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 and a week or so back in order to get a more recent version of SCons. 11.04 dropped me into the new “Unity” GNOME interface. There may be pe...

Eric Raymond posted this on Google+ pointing to post on his Blog.

This was my comment to him:

Vile? Seriously? I would submit that the use of such rhetoric demeans the true meaning of that word and all that it should represent.

The computer revolution has presented us all with the unique opportunity to compete with our ideas. You don't like the default window manager choice made in Ubuntu? Cannonical will succeed or fail based on the ideas they express in this new Unity interface. That is the beauty of this 'Idea Economy'. It is, we keep saying about choice. You of all people should realize that (Ubuntu == Linux) = False. Use another distro. Or change the window manager, download XUBUNTU or LUBUNTU. Stop kvetching and find one of the plethora of choices and then write a post extolling it's virtues. Even better, don't like the direction of Unity and/or Gnome, start a new project and show us your better idea. Fork the damn code of Gnome 2.x and pursue a different path. That is, after all, the point of the OS in FOSS, yes? I bet you have enough followers that you wouldn't have to actually do much coding and, who knows, you may invent the newest better mouse-trap and the world will beat a path to your collective door.

Finally, and I think most importantly, while I agree with you on how wrong it is to find a blob of binary configuration data I find your discussion of the topic condescending. While I used to program for a living, back when GUI interfaces existed on mafchines @ XeroX Parc, your, making it simple enough for you non-programmer types (i.e. we're just to simple-minded to understand) insulting. Even the average Linux 'power-user', who has never written a line of code has more than likely run a terminal session and edited a .cfg, etc. file. The implication that they are incapable of understanding this without having 'children's corner' is NOT the way to persuade people to you cause.

The way to do that is to Show them Something Better.

Shows I Miss:Quotes from Babylon5

My friend +Knight Wise asked for favorite Sci Fi Quotes and two shows came to the top of my queue: FireFly/Serenity and Babylon5. Baby5 was my fav in the target-rich SciFi on TV landscape of the '90s. I knew the quote I wanted, but re-discovered the treasure-trove of great lines from a great show. The crew of Serenity have expressed how much they loved that show and miss it. I have not heard any interviews of the B5 folks, but, as an actor, I would kill to have dialogue like this...

(The quote I went searching for is the last in the list...)


Kosh Naranek: A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from the bristles.

Lorien: We've lived too long, seen too much. To live on, as we have, is to leave behind joy, love, and companionship because we know it to be transitory; of the moment. We know it will turn to ash. Only those whose lives are brief can believe that love, is eternal.
[pause]
Lorien: You should embrace that remarkable illusion. It may be the greatest gift your race has ever received.

Citizen G'Kar: We all believe in something... greater than ourselves, even if it's just the blind forces of chance.

[a telepathic implant prevents Garibaldi from shooting Bester]
Michael Garibaldi: What have you done to me?
PsiCop Alfred Bester: I've hit you with an Asimov.

Citizen G'Kar: The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

Lorien: The universe began with a word. But which came first: the word or the thought behind the word? You can't create language without thought, and you can't conceive a thought without language, so which created the other, and thus created the universe?

Citizen G'Kar: Our thoughts form the universe. They are always important.

Kosh Naranek: Ah, you seek meaning?
Talia: Yes.
Kosh Naranek: Then listen to the music, not the song.

Delenn: The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice, the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one.

Captain John Sheridan: From the stars we came. From the stars we return. From now, till the end of time. We therefore commit these bodies to the deep.

Ambassador Londo Mollari: But this - this, this, this is like being nibbled to death by... what are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet... go 'quack'...
Ambassador Vir Cotto: Cats.
Ambassador Londo Mollari: Cats. Being nibbled to death by cats.

Delenn: We are star stuff. We are the universe made manifest trying to figure itself out.

G'Kar: It is said that the future is always born in pain. The history of war is the history of pain. If we are wise, what is born of that pain matures into the promise of a better world, because we learn that we can no longer afford the mistakes of the past.

Captain John Sheridan: If more of our so-called leaders would walk the same streets as the people who voted them in, live in the same buildings, eat the same food instead of hiding behind glass and steel and bodyguards, maybe we'd get better leadership and a little more concern for the future.



Lennier: [Lennier and Vir do not make eye contact during this conversation] Sometimes I get so close and yet it feels like I'm shut out of the important things.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: It's a useless feeling. The Ambassador is definitely going through some changes. He even looks different.
Lennier: Indeed. And now with the military starting to stampede over everyone and everything...
Ambassador Vir Cotto: People coming and going and secret meetings...
Lennier: You never know what it's all about until later when it's too late.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: And they never listen to us.
Ambassador Vir Cotto, Lennier: Makes me nervous.
Ambassador Vir Cotto: [they finally look at each other] Same time tomorrow?
Lennier: Sure.

G'Kar: No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

Citizen G'Kar: If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth... for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search - who does not bring a lantern - sees nothing. What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light... pure and unblemished... not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe - God looks astonishingly like we do - or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us.