[clue-talk] Why X? [long, with provocative questions]

[Matt Gushee]

Tom Witmer wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 21:31 -0600, Matt Gushee wrote:
> [brutal snippage]

Ow! Stop that! :-)

>    Hi, long-time reader, first-time poster here. I sympathize, but might
> just pipe up a little bit in X's defense. X is absolutely not where it
> should be, but it finally started heading there last year when it

[lots of good technical tidbits]

>    Unfortunately, I would guess it'll be at least another year before
> these fixes get polished enough for average desktop users to begin
> taking advantage of them. That doesn't help you now,

At the risk of sounding really, really repetitious, I don't need help. 
My concern was more that *Linux* might need help to thrive in today's 
marketplace. That's why I posted on CLUE-*Talk*.

>      2. The first rule of optimization is to not optimize anything until
>         you have repeatable, quantifiable numbers that you can use to
>         see if you've made things better or worse.

A very sound principle. It seems, though, that like many good principles 
it gets corrupted in practice. One of the folk-wisdom versions of this 
notion that I've heard is that "performance doesn't matter any more." 
Which is probably true for major corporations that can solve problems by 
throwing hardware at them. Less true, and maybe untrue for--yes, home 
users--but also small businesses, students, non-profit organizations, 
anyone on a tight budget.

>      6. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Compositing (translucency,
>         drop-shadows, lots of wild eye candy) are on their way as well.
>         SVG will provide some serious usability enhancements, as well as
>         allow for even more wild eye candy. (Hey, some of that stuff is
>         actually useful!)

Hmm ... what do you hear about SVG and usability? I was an XML 
consultant for a short while ... they said I was good, though I don't 
know why ... later became disgusted with the XML world and have been 
pointedly ignoring it for the last 2 years or so. But I still have some 
interest in the field, and I always thought SVG was kind of cool.

--
Matt Gushee
Englewood, CO, USA