[TriLUG] Winning converts and losing the clueful: was Being a "Super User" sucks!

[Steve Litt via TriLUG]

On Fri, 3 Jul 2015 00:36:26 -0400
Brian Weaver via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:

> When did the open source crowd become so determined to win
> converts that it left those of us that actually have a clue unable to
> make use of that which we love?
> 
[snip]

> 
> I'm saddened by what I see in the Open Source community. So eager the
> community has become to win over converts that it is willing to
> crucify those that can in order to gain those who can not. 

Careful Brian, keep this up and you'll get called a "hater" or a
"whinger" or a "neckbeard" or some other euphamism for somebody who
thinks levels of abstraction have a cost and such cost should be
considered in design and coding.

> Is it so
> much to ask of those who don't know how to learn a bit more? 

They *are* asked to learn a bit more. Every year they learn yet another
set of cockpit controls to view and control certain parts of what's
under the ever-more-layered hood.

> Then
> again perhaps I should spend more effort fighting against the
> software (and the wine that courses through my veins) to break the
> naughty Thunderbird and make it do my bidding.

Thunderbird is the snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. Look throughout
the Linux ecosystem, and you'll see nothing but increasing complexity,
much of it complexity for complexity's sake, and most of it making it
much harder for the guy who wants to work under the hood, instead of
twisting knobs on the latest cockpit the superapp of the year provides
him.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
June 2015 featured book: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key