Re: Problems with current Apple X11 package
Re: Problems with current Apple X11 package
- Subject: Re: Problems with current Apple X11 package
- From: Sean Ahern <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 15:40:18 -0800
This has elements of becoming a religious battle, but into the fray...
magenta wrote:
> > > One of the greatest strengths of X11 (which is something that both
> > > Microsoft and Apple could learn from) is that it allows the *user* to
> > > customize *everything* about their environment (not just superficial
> > > things
> > > like colors and window decorations).
> >
> > This is also one of the largest drawbacks of X :-)
>
> Only to someone who thinks they should dictate the way their application
> behaves.
Oh, come on. That's stretching it a bit.
<rant>
To be fair, one of the main problems with X is that every application can
dictate how it should behave, without constraint. "Mechanism, not policy,"
remember. That's great for me, an application designer. It can be a pain
for the user. If a user has to change the way he works when he switches
between applications, his productivity is going to drop and his annoyance
level will increase.
Now let's constrain the application designer. Assume that all of a user's
applications are written with Qt or GTK or whatever so that they all work
pretty much the same. But his window manager has a million different
settings so that he can customize things so everything works exactly how he
wants. He can set things so that flicking the mouse left while both the
middle and right buttons are down causes the topmost window group to
maximize. There are no window decorations. This user now calls you for
help with his environment. How do you tell him what to do? You can only
make so many assumptions how things behave in an X11 environment.
Once you constrain most everything, you're talking about Windows and MacOS.
Take a guess what the installed base of Windows and MacOS is compared to
X11. I will guarantee you that my grandma will find Windows and the Mac a
heck of a lot easier to use than X11 *precisely* because her actions are
constrained and consistent (to a larger degree than X11).
I'm sure you've heard the quote:
If the designers of X-Windows built cars, there would be no fewer than
five steering wheels hidden about the cockpit, none of which followed
the same principles -- but you'd be able to shift gears with your car
stereo. Useful feature, that.
-- Marus J. Ranum, Digital Equipment Corporation
So I think you both are right: being able to configure X11 is one of its
greatest strengths as well as one of its largest drawbacks.
And I've in both camps for years: an application writer, and a user who
uses X11 on Linux as his daily desktop.
</rant>
-Sean
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