Re: new pc finally arrived and have to make decisions-help

[russurquhart1@xxxxxxxx]

Hey Robert,

This was the same mail you sent me earlier, right?

Thanks

Russ
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Robert Holmgren" 
> ** Reply to message from russurquhart1@xxxxxxxx on Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:57:36
> +0000
>
> Very nice, Russ. Good retort. Your Dad sounds like a great guy.
>
> In the broadest terms, my dispute with your viewpoint is this: If things "just
> worked", there'd be no reason for this maillist, and certainly no need to ever
> ask a question.
>
> "Just works" only applies with one-dimensional programs, which do one thing one
> way. As soon as there are choices, there are questions. According to
> XySearch, there have been questions sans cesse, about 27 thousand of them at
> last count (or let's say 13 thousand questions and 14 thousand answers,
> probably describing choices) -- and that's just *one app* with a tiny
> following. Does XyWrite "just work"? No.
>
> Would you *like* a word processor that "just worked"?
>
> "Just works" means: acceptance. Whatever they shovel at you, you take.
> Unless, fortuitously, they happen to be on your wavelength. How frequent is
> that? I actually care deeply which driver I use to run my printers, my
> postscript, my image-to-ps conversion, mounting virtual DVDs, the codec I
> choose for decrypting MPEG-2, and all sorts of this'n'that. There are SO many
> choices, with radically different characteristics and results.
>
> Complexity means options, and v.v. You know it. Just works is self-defeating,
> IMO.
>
> -----------------------------
> Robert Holmgren
> holmgren@xxxxxxxx
> -----------------------------
>