On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Joshua Marsh <[email protected]> wrote: > I'd agree it has to do with the increase of usage from other tools. We have > sort of built up a fear of getting responses like "Don't top-post!", > "RTFM", etc. I can get 99% of my answers from googling it which often leads > to stackoverflow or something similar. The only ones I can't are things > like "Hows the internet here?".
I'd disagree that it has anything to do with list etiquette enforcement. The glory days were *full* of that. If that were true, the graph would have data points tied to the rise of Google's gmail to dominance (when top posting really got out of hand :] ). I'd say, the *biggest* factor is that Linux (GNU/Linux, if you like) Just Works. When I first started hitting the list, we were trying to do things like get anti-aliased fonts support compiled into our browsers and configuring X with the latest video cards. I can't remember the last time I had to try to get hardware to working on Linux (RAID cards being the exception, but most of those require work on Windows too). All of that is behind us now. Be happy. Gone are the days when you had to have special meeting dedicated to the installation and configuration of Linux. Remember how awesome installfests were? Remember people carting in their beige tower cases and 21" CRTs? Linux is better. It's not a drop-in replacement for Windows, but most Linux users don't want that. They also don't need help getting it going. I'm glad to follow the list to keep up with friends that I've made in the past. It's also good to know that the PLUG will be here for me if I ever need help getting my Sound Blaster Pro working. And for the record, I don't think I've ever asked a question on stack overflow. I hear that it runs on Window... bleck! Gabe /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
