On Mon, 9 Jan 2006 16:03:49 -0800
Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 11:11:33PM +0100, Dexter Filmore wrote:
> > 
> > Haha, yeah, of course the old "choice is good" chatter.
> > 
> > "too many cooks spoil the meal" I say. I am seriously considering switching
> > from sylpheed to kmail because that frigging gtk2 look annoys me. A lesson
> > Apple has learned, MS has learned and about anyone agrees about it except
> > some die hard "choice is good" ideology blinded naysayers.
> > 
> 
> You cite a choice you're about to make as evidence that "choice is good"
> is just chatter? Curious ...

That's a point I mentioned somewhere else in the thread: I like choices -
*choosing* is good, this doesn't necessarily mean that the choice is good
either, if I can choose between three piles of crud for example nobody will
step up and say "choice is good" - but once I made my choice based on
information about the choice's character and nature I'd like to *get* what I
was promised.

Now this can be spun into infinety up to the question which DE to use, which
OS to use, which brand of computer, which donut flavor and which car paint
fits my teeth best, yes - the scope can be lowered and raised arbitrarily.

"Choice is good" is not so often a principle on linux desktops as it is an
excuse to have a funny looking conglomerate and take french leave when
design/usability issues are discussed ( oh, sorry, take *freedom* leave, bwah
ha ha, scnr ). 

I choose KDE. I got most of it, but not all: I got that gtk2 mail app here
because kmail has some serious issues I cannot arrange with, so that's a part
of KDE that fails me and I have to look for a subsitute. In my case sylpheed.
but sylpheed hardly integrates into KDE.

Now is choice good? Well. Yes, it gives me the lesser of two evils. Did
choosing satisfy my needs? Not really. Would a system that followed a
standard suit me better? I guess so, yes. Even if the design wouldn't
completely match my idea how it should ( and no system ever will, impossible)
there's *one* design with its quirks I get used to. 

I mean, I'm not asking for The Perfect OS (TM) but for interface standards.
Imagine "paste" was on middle button in gnome, on right button in kde and on
numlock in fluxbox. While this is not a defined standard but rather a
tradition that propagated from "back then" everyone seems to have accustomed
to it and uses it. Standards are good, even quasi-standards. I even like LSB.

Ok, I've been writing on this reply for an hour or so and the rabbit hole
really goes deep, apparently.

Umm. I click send now. Oh, wait, I can press ctrl-enter instead, that'll
send, too. Hey, choice. And both choices do what they say they would :)

Dex


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