Can't we all just get along?

[mdlbear]

I'm always surprised at how emotional some people can get about my choice of software. I get ad-hominem attacks when I mention that I prefer Emacs and LaTeX to somebody's favorite WYSIWYG word processor. I stopped allowing anonymous comments after somebody literally accused me of "child abuse" (those words, exactly) when I mentioned that my kids sometimes used Linux. I continually get snide comments whenever I mention that, as a visual illiterate and long-time X user, I find the Mac user interface unuseable. (And I'm not saying that Windows is much better, but nobody sends me hate mail when I criticize Windows.)

Seriously, I get fewer flames when I mention that I'm an agnostic Druid. In fact, I don't think anyone has flamed me about my religion recently.

I'm not asking for tolerance, exactly. Or maybe I am. At least until Linux achieves its goal of world domination. Then we'll see who...

Oh. Right. Sorry about that.

Comments

[mdlbear]

We differ -- I like X, have been using it and Unix/Linux as a client for most of two decades, and can't stand any flavor of Windows or Mac.

The apps on my desktop are almost entirely 80-column text displays, including xterms, emacs frames, and Firefox (which I configure to the same size as an Emacs window, though the proportional font tends to get more than 80 columns on the screen). Those rare occasions when I have to view a legacy Office document I fire up OpenOffice and grit my teeth at the UI.

I personally don't believe web services will take over in the next decade, if ever, and in any case interfaces are getting more diverse, not less. I do think that open source will prevail, and commoditize OSs and data interchange formats.

None of which really addresses the original topic, which was the degree to which people get defensive about their preferred UI's. Except perhaps to illustrate the point.

[elimloth.livejournal.com]

None of which really addresses the original topic, which was the degree to which people get defensive about their preferred UI's. Except perhaps to illustrate the point.

I think it illustrates the counterpoint, that people can differ and yet remain amicable. When I see you go off on Windows or OS X or GUI versus command line interfaces, I just see you and I differ.

"In an old and perhaps forgotten tradition of a place elsewhere, Draco settles himself next to the bar and offers Mandelbear a drink."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Not so forgotten a tradition. Have one yourself.

[mdlbear]

A little of both.

Not forgotten here -- let me buy the next round.