On 19/07/2015 20:07, Didier Kryn wrote:
You say "crapware"; I've also read "bloatware". Everyone complains about GNU, including me, but I don't forget everyone is or should be immensely gratefull for the wonderful software they provide to the world, free and open. Think of gcc, glibc, emacs, latex...
GNU is and has always been a political project more than a technical one. And it has been very successful with its main goal, which is great; I cannot thank GNU/Linux enough for giving me access to a free Unix-like operating system in my learning years, and for providing a serious alternative to Microsoft in the server world (serious as in: it works about as well and it is cheaper). However, GNU should not be taken for what it isn't, and great ideologies do not good engineering make. GNU is awesome when all the alternatives you have are proprietary software, but the picture gets much uglier when you start looking under the hood and evaluating the software from a sheer technical viewpoint. Most of GNU *is* bloatware, and a significant part of it makes outright bad technical choices; some well-known GNU tools are a consistently bad experience for people who use them everyday and either don't know better, or have no choice because there really isn't any other free alternative. Do not be afraid to give credit where credit is due *and* point out faults where they are; these are not contradictory. And I actually believe that the best way you can be grateful to GNU is to be brutally honest with them so you give them a chance to improve. -- Laurent _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng