That is an architectural distinction of concern to developers, but I don't think
users will see it that way, nor should they. It is a common mistake to think
that the best way to present an interface to the user is to mirror the
underlying architecture. Users will view Freenet as a single application, not a
group of applications sitting on top of a common platform. Our UI must reflect
this.
There are many users who see 'Internet' as being the icon on their Windows
desktop. This does not mean that Apache will ever come with the browser, nor
should it. It is true that users sometimes misrepresent what is what, and for
that reason it's a good practice to hide some facts from those who aren't ready
for it. One can call Freetalk "chat" or "forums" for example, and make it
seemlessly integrate into the rest of the UI, and one should make a default
start of FProxy with the rest of the Freenet core. However, users should not be
forced to use the bundle when they only need one thing.
Why not? Why shouldn't search also return results from discussions and your
freemail? Why shouldn't you be able to attach a file to a discussion, which
would be downloaded through the filesharing mechanism? The lack of integration
between Google's apps is a bug, not a feature to be emulated. This is why I
still think Facebook is the separate metaphor. I don't think "oh, now I must
switch to the Facebook Mail app so I can email my friend". Its all integrated.
Facebook analogy doesn't work for the simple reason that users aren't required
to run those things on their computers. If Facebook would be a distributed
network, i'm sure that many who use it just to message their friends and look at
photos would find it surprising that it's trying to run video conversion on
their systems... and they *would* demand to have the ability to tell it to stop.
------------------------------------
Now i realise that the most likely response to what i've written will be "I
haven't said that Apache should come with Firefox", and it's true there was no
such statement, but my reply is to the counterargument against the Google apps
analogy.
- Volodya
--
http://freedom.libsyn.com/ Echo of Freedom, Radical Podcast
"None of us are free until all of us are free." ~ Mihail Bakunin
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