Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Barriers to Adoption: exponential userbase size increases

[Zenaan Harkness]

On Tue, 2004-10-19 at 05:42, Thomas Lord wrote:
>     > From: Dustin Sallings <address@hidden>
> 
>     >         Could it be true that the benefit of adopting arch is the fact 
> that it 
>     > uses shell meta characters in some of its filenames that cause 
>     > confusion for some users?
> 
> If you say "a benefit" instead of "the benefit" then I would agree
> that that is, at the least, a hypothesis worh considering.   Yes.
> 
> As supporting proto-evidence: I think it increases the value of arch
> tremendously that there a modest handful of people doing real-world
> (sometimes even deep-pocketed) work with it who embrace the
> conventions that confuse newbies and, when asked, tell newbies to "get
> over it".   There's a dual message there:  (a) "arch is very valuable"
> and (b) "your petty concerns are woefully and harmfully misplaced".

I like this argument.

I would like to see arch work well on w32 environments, as part of my
subversive plans for world domination (I understand this is in plan),
and I do think "likely to wipe out your tree" lessons are perhaps a
little harsh for those who get bitten by them. There's a balance there
somewhere...

>     > > Some people run smack into arch as newbies, experience great
>     > > frustration, then emerge as better unix users and better hackers
>     > > generally.  One small part of that, when it happens, is a shift of
>     > > perspective about the various issues that get discussed endlessly on
>     > > this list.  So, what exactly is it I'm supposed to fix about this?
> 
>     >         Perhaps you should stop thinking of arch as a UNIX education
>     >         tool.  
> 
> I think of all good Unix tools and projects as, in part, unix
> education tools.  Why shouldn't I?  What the hell is the alternative
> given the relative lengths of project lifetimes and human-career-phase
> lifetimes?   Are you insane?   Of *course* the tutorial function is a
> critical part of arch.

I don't think we're insane, just too well-schooled as opposed to
actually educated. An unfortunate consequence of our unceasing march
into Plato's utopian Republic over the last century and a half (since
the imposition of forced schooling, and since when (US, free population)
literacy has been consistently lower than prior. rant rant...

> A system that holographically presents itself --- what a win.

Sounds way cool.