Sending this privately to you and not to the list because I am not
interested in taking part in public drama.
I don't want any drama. However, there is someone who is overly
sensitive to criticism and suggestions proposing substantial changes,
even when they are delivered as politely as possible.
Theo de Raadt doesn't like the idea because it would ruin the amazing
experience of using a window manager that has virtually remained
unchanged for 25 years.
It is funny that you are trying to be ironic but seems to be missing the
point that indeed that is an amazing feature to have in a system you
use, for many users of a system like OpenBSD and, most importantly, for
the developers that actually do the work. When it comes to functionality
that interfaces with the user, stuff like basic command line tools or
the graphical interface that I use all the time, I expect them to be
stable. If their behavior change, they better have a damn good reason or
else that will just make me angry. Off course that is just me, but also
that is one of the reason that attracts me and a number of other people
to such a system. I do not use FVWM myself, but if I did, it would
bother me a bit if it was removed or changed in base for no good reason.
I do use another window manager whose functionality has also remained
unchanged in functionality (and even mostly unchanged in code!) for
about 20 years and that makes me very happy.
I understand your point of view. I'm also quite conservative. However,
it's inevitable that things change over time. This is especially evident
on the web. Almost no one can avoid using one of these bloated browsers,
such as Chromium or Firefox, which constantly change.
Furthermore, being in base does not mean it is unmaintained; rather it
means more that it is now its own fork, carefully maintained by the
watchful eyes of the developers, some of which in this case are daily
users. To my eyes, it has not been abandoned, but rather promoted to a
class of applications that I trust more than average.
It's a romantic illusion to think that OpenBSD developers are gods who
can constantly process and think about every line of code in the
operating system. No matter how minimalist you make it or how much time
you devote to it, you will always miss errors, and sometimes you learn
this the hard way.
Off course this way of thinking is not shared by everyone, most notably,
not by many young people apparently. That is fine, and this is the
reason we have diversity in open source. That is a good thing. OpenBSD
is an OS built by developers in their spare time, for their own use and
convenience, that also happens to be shared with the world. They do not
owe you anything and definitely they do not have to agree with you. In
fact, there is a ton of users out there that not only disagree with you
but feel even offended by your attitude.
No one can take offense to my attitude. Yet, when it comes to Theo de
Raath, anything goes. No one has the right to criticize him, and anyone
who dares to do so is censured. What kind of double standard is this?
If I were to make a proposal, I would suggest replacing FVWM with CTWM
This would be so rude with the people actually using OpenBSD daily and
FVWM. Why would someone do that? Like I point above, there is simply no
good reason in the eyes of the people developing the system. Your
aesthetics and principles are clearly not shared by them.
I know, and there's nothing I can do about it. I have no power over the
project, and the little I can do (speaking up on the mailing list) is
unfairly denied to me.
