31–40 of 42 posts
There are a lot of problems with Metro and Unity, but starting your essay by ridiculing the fashion choices of non-conformist teen girls is absolutely the wrong way to frame the discussion. The essay would be much stronger without the off-target metaphor of the title and first paragraph.
My thoughts exactly. My assumption is that Jeremy's never talked to anyone with dyed hair or piercings.
I can't speak for Windows 8, but I'm a 'hacker', and I'm using Unity right now, I don't see what's the fuss about it. I hate the sidebar, just like I hate the Windows Start Menu, but I can't see any reason to use it(then again I'm a vim person, and keyboard/shortcut oriented). I love being able to call up the search window and select the app or document I'm looking for in two/three keystrokes, tops, much faster than…
Most people I've talked to hate Unity, a few say it's "OK" and a tiny fraction actually like it. If you like it and can use it that's great, but most people don't and their opinions are being ignored by Canonical.
Rather I think they're taking the complaints exactly as they should be: people outside of the target audience trying to convince them that they don't have a target audience. They do. It's just different from the target audience of Debian or Arch. We can draw a straight parallel to Windows 8. The target audience is demanding easier UI and a tablet-like experience. Those outside of the target audience are complaining that this audience does not exist.
In both cases (Unity and Metro), the developers put in an option for those that don't like the change. Canonical keeps an up-to-date repository of alternative desktop environments, and Microsoft left the desktop in Windows 8.
Contrast this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6z6hn6wZlg&feature=play...
with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fsyb-ttcw
My only gripe with Unity is that there is no single click workspace switcher instead they copied the stupid OSX two click "Spaces" UI. The single click switcher has been on linux since like 1992 and was an aspect Apple had clearly half assed when 'borrowing' the linux interface. I don't know why Unity copied the botched version.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"They often had many good qualities, but they didn’t think so. These girls felt they have nothing better to offer so they went with outlandish styles to attract attention." That doesn't seem misogynistic. It seems like he's describing their own bad judgement, not his.
Because it's insinuating those girls actually feel that way and are acting out because of it, instead of assuming they're confident enough to make these decisions because they actually want to. If every girl/person you see with unconventional style is presumed to be weak because you think they're doing it for attention, that's discrimination with a hint of ego for not having to 'stoop' to those tactics. This is simil…
I know a goth girl (real goth not poser goth, for those who care) and she told me that she dresses defensively because she gets bullied a lot. That's not an assumption or judgement by me, that's what she told me. I also know a former Wiccan girl from a broken home, and a satanist who has anger management issues and a drug problem. That does not generalize to all goth/Wiccan/satanist people but that doesn't mean it never happens.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's insinuating those girls actually feel that way and are acting out because of it, instead of assuming they're confident enough to make these decisions because they actually want to. If every girl/person you see with unconventional style is presumed to be weak because you think they're doing it for attention, that's discrimination with a hint of ego for not having to 'stoop' to those tactics. This is simil…
"Insinuating"? You just assume, without justification, that he's making those judgements at a distance and doesn't know those people personally. You've got the argument backwards: he's not claiming that everyone with "unconventional style" has low self-esteem and is looking for attention. He's observing that attention-seeking people with low self-esteem do flashy things to get attention. I know a goth girl (real goth…
I can't speak for Windows 8, but I'm a 'hacker', and I'm using Unity right now, I don't see what's the fuss about it. I hate the sidebar, just like I hate the Windows Start Menu, but I can't see any reason to use it(then again I'm a vim person, and keyboard/shortcut oriented). I love being able to call up the search window and select the app or document I'm looking for in two/three keystrokes, tops, much faster than…
Most people I've talked to hate Unity, a few say it's "OK" and a tiny fraction actually like it. If you like it and can use it that's great, but most people don't and their opinions are being ignored by Canonical.
I use Ubuntu because it seems to still be the desktop distro most widely supported by third-party apps and drivers, and I have had good success with release upgrades. Otherwise, if I had any problem with Ubuntu's package repos, there's no reason not to use Debian or Fedora instead. Among desktop distros, Debian stable is great if you think Ubuntu LTS doesn't have a long enough lifespan, Fedora is great if you have a little more experience with Linux and want faster package updates. Both Debian and Fedora have always had more 'hacker cred' than Ubuntu without losing the benefits of being mainstream distros, if that is what you are looking for. If you want even more hacker cred, try BSDs, Slackware, Arch, Gentoo.
Canonical isn't forcing anything upon you or anyone else. They aren't doing anything unethical with Unity's design. Nor is there anything to distinguish your opinion as more worth listening to than others'. As a private company, it is Canonical's choice how they spend their money and try to build market share. You can type 'sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop' in seconds. You aren't paying anything for it. And there are really no external forces pushing you to use Ubuntu over anything else. It's just a distribution of packages. Serve yourself however you please - this shouldn't be a problem for you, since you are complaining that Ubuntu has abandoned 'hackers'.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's obviously a (weak) personal anecdote. To expect everyone's personal anecdotes to contain a gender-neutral worldview compatible with the latest revision of social progressivism is unreasonable at best. To then accuse that person of misogyny because of it? Equally weak - basically an accusation of 'thought crime' based off an incomplete record of thoughts.
I was merely describing the analogy as misogynist, but if you wish to extend the label to the speaker you have every right to attempt that. If we are to discuss the rhetoric of my comment, though, I think that weasel words such as "thought crime" are also weak and loaded to the point of being useless in this context. Thoughts are distinct from written words. Edit: typo
Save the outrage for where it actually matters - there is plenty of real misogyny out there. Just today I read a story about some idiot candidate for Senate in Indiana...
YMMV on the styles (I'm undecided on them), but there's a ton of stuff under the hood that just couldn't be slapped into the desktop, without huge drawbacks or compromises. In the second section the post kind of recognizes this saying they're doing it because "the world is going mobile"/low power, but then immediately goes on with "It's change simply for the sake of change", and I don't think it can be both. Simple squares, non-overlapping windows and text rather than (pixel shader'd) graphics aren't just an aesthetic thing, there's a fair amount of practicality in there.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was merely describing the analogy as misogynist, but if you wish to extend the label to the speaker you have every right to attempt that. If we are to discuss the rhetoric of my comment, though, I think that weasel words such as "thought crime" are also weak and loaded to the point of being useless in this context. Thoughts are distinct from written words. Edit: typo
The speaker obviously had personal experiences involving teenage girls when he was younger, and related it back with a personal anecdote. Calling him (or the analogy) misogynistic is incredibly loaded, and seems more a knee-jerk reaction to anything that depicts one gender negatively without simultaneously doing the same for the other than a real critique. The use of the word 'thought-crime' was quite deliberate. Sav…
To suggest that the existence of more extreme cases of misogyny supersede the need to make note of lesser cases is a weak and breathless deflection. The idea that any criticism is "outrage" may make you feel justified in your sensitivities, but doesn't take away from my initial assertion. As I attempted to say elsewhere my problem is not that the analogy fails to be gender neutral, but that it is boring.