Although the blog post was a little hard to get through on account of the author's somewhat rambly writing style, I broadly agree with the conclusion at the bottom At this point in my life, when I...
Although the blog post was a little hard to get through on account of the author's somewhat rambly writing style, I broadly agree with the conclusion at the bottom
If I had a dollar every time I saw an "open source" project vaguely recreate a handful of surface-level features of some commercial solution then go "there you have it folks, YOU'RE FREE" while Nothing Actually Works, I would be able to, like, pay rent with it.
At this point in my life, when I have disposable income, but lack free time, I generally try to go for the polished paid product over trying to cobble something together. The OSS I do use generally is from a company or companies - they just don't charge for it for various reasons. Chromium, VSCode, Linux (on servers), and so forth.
The other exception is command line tools. When you boil down the UX to its absolute minimum, it ends up being fine... most of the time for FOSS.
I mean, call it "thinking it's clever" all you want, but Important Terms Being Capitalized is a useful rhetorical device, used both sincerely and ironically. It isn't just some affectation picked...
I mean, call it "thinking it's clever" all you want, but Important Terms Being Capitalized is a useful rhetorical device, used both sincerely and ironically. It isn't just some affectation picked up due to an excessive time spent on wikis, it's a stylistic option that dates back to English capitalizing every important noun in a sentence.
In this specific case, you basically already identified the purpose. The effect is more adding "cheekiness" to the tone as opposed to being clever. For example (the first one I could find in the...
In this specific case, you basically already identified the purpose. The effect is more adding "cheekiness" to the tone as opposed to being clever.
For example (the first one I could find in the article)
The Early Unix Crowd lament having to think about languages other than C.
By capitalizing "Early Unix Crowd", the author makes it into a proper noun. The implication is that this is a specific group that considers themselves the Early Unix Crowd, and I get a bit of ironic connotation there. In this case it's like calling yourself a unix greybeard. That's the difference from
The early unix crowd lament having to think languages other than C
which is more a factual statement. In this case, I also think it would be worse, because by making it a proper noun, it adds to the degree to which the whole statement sounds facetious, and it's intended to be a sardonic statement. As a factual statement it'd be too broad and generalizing - as a statement both trying to get a point and poking fun at "Early Unix Crowd" members, it works better.
But I've seen people use that style just casually, for no reason. Even here on Tildes. We can do better than that.
While I don't add write like that personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. There's no "we can do better than that" about it. It's a style, styles are subjective.
Apparently that style of writing has some popularity on Tumblr, and while I’ve never spent much time there, I’ve got enough friends who adopted the style to be familiar with it. That said, I...
Apparently that style of writing has some popularity on Tumblr, and while I’ve never spent much time there, I’ve got enough friends who adopted the style to be familiar with it. That said, I remember when I first came across it and I agree it was a bit jarring in a way I can’t articulate.
I think it’s just another way of adding a proxy of tone or emphasis or body language that text fundamentally lacks. But to my mind, it achieves much the same result as cramming hyphens between words to create a phrase/concept to refer to (state-of-the-art). Or to italicise the name of a book, or a film, or ship etc (UNSC Pillar of Autumn). And it can create gravitas with the emphasis too (The Boy Who Lived).
For me it's sometimes just mobile error. Especially anytime I want to use a abbrieviated term and it feels a need to capitalize the word afterwwards (using e.g. is probably more trouble than it's...
For me it's sometimes just mobile error. Especially anytime I want to use a abbrieviated term and it feels a need to capitalize the word afterwwards (using e.g. is probably more trouble than it's worth with my current keyboard setup).
Insufferable. The author repeatedly confuses his own opinion for fact. If a piece of software doesn't do what you need, then don't use it. No one needs to justify why they don't use FOSS software....
Insufferable. The author repeatedly confuses his own opinion for fact.
If a piece of software doesn't do what you need, then don't use it. No one needs to justify why they don't use FOSS software. Sometimes we pay for proprietary software and that's perfectly fine.
He almost sounds like he wants to dismiss the concept of FOSS entirely. Ultimately, this is just a rant with no real point made.
based on the self-described background, that may be the point. If you grow up lower income you may be used to resorting to cheap but inefficient methods to squeeze every penny out. So the act of...
based on the self-described background, that may be the point. If you grow up lower income you may be used to resorting to cheap but inefficient methods to squeeze every penny out. So the act of paying for a premium service can be seen as giving up. Doubly so with a technical background where you spend so much time tinkering under the hood.
I don't think you need to justify it, but it's always a good question to keep in the back of your mind:
how important is this tool?
what is my project scope
how much time is this tool saving?
what's the licensing?
Those can all determine when it's best to use a proprietary solution, and when it may be best to instead utilize something you can truly own. There's no one answer to that, and nothing is truly forever (Unity users in particular feeling that this month).
I'll disagree with that, hard. If you don't need the complexity of Kubernetes, avoiding it is a good decision. A docker-compose on a single host still has advantages over raw deployment on a VM,...
absolutely nobody should be running anything in production using a docker-compose file.
I'll disagree with that, hard. If you don't need the complexity of Kubernetes, avoiding it is a good decision. A docker-compose on a single host still has advantages over raw deployment on a VM, and raw deployment on a VM isn't a bad choice for production either (if you're still using proper confiuration management, mind).
While I agree a Pi in the closet isn't a genuine solution for most... I'd bet a nickle 6 $2,000 servers co-located in 2 datacenters can handle a lot more load than many people would give them credit for.
While I generally agree with the sentiment behind what this person is saying, I'm rather annoyed about his attitude in regards to Dia. There are many reasons to dislike Dia - it's got an annoying...
While I generally agree with the sentiment behind what this person is saying, I'm rather annoyed about his attitude in regards to Dia. There are many reasons to dislike Dia - it's got an annoying interface, and more importantly it hasn't seen a new release in years, which has a host of related issues.
But the only thing that they seem to care about is that it's old and unfashionable. Does it do everything he wants out of it? Who knows; they don't even mention trying it out, and the only clue they did is a screenshot with a diagram with a single element labeled with a condescending remark.
I also don't know why they didn't try Inkscape. It does everything they seem to require.
The link about vector networks in Figma is interesting. I spent some time last year trying to get into vector art with Affinity Designer. Being limited to paths was maddeningly counterintuitive....
I spent some time last year trying to get into vector art with Affinity Designer. Being limited to paths was maddeningly counterintuitive. How has this not become the default everywhere?
Although the blog post was a little hard to get through on account of the author's somewhat rambly writing style, I broadly agree with the conclusion at the bottom
At this point in my life, when I have disposable income, but lack free time, I generally try to go for the polished paid product over trying to cobble something together. The OSS I do use generally is from a company or companies - they just don't charge for it for various reasons. Chromium, VSCode, Linux (on servers), and so forth.
The other exception is command line tools. When you boil down the UX to its absolute minimum, it ends up being fine... most of the time for FOSS.
I mean, call it "thinking it's clever" all you want, but Important Terms Being Capitalized is a useful rhetorical device, used both sincerely and ironically. It isn't just some affectation picked up due to an excessive time spent on wikis, it's a stylistic option that dates back to English capitalizing every important noun in a sentence.
In this specific case, you basically already identified the purpose. The effect is more adding "cheekiness" to the tone as opposed to being clever.
For example (the first one I could find in the article)
By capitalizing "Early Unix Crowd", the author makes it into a proper noun. The implication is that this is a specific group that considers themselves the Early Unix Crowd, and I get a bit of ironic connotation there. In this case it's like calling yourself a unix greybeard. That's the difference from
which is more a factual statement. In this case, I also think it would be worse, because by making it a proper noun, it adds to the degree to which the whole statement sounds facetious, and it's intended to be a sardonic statement. As a factual statement it'd be too broad and generalizing - as a statement both trying to get a point and poking fun at "Early Unix Crowd" members, it works better.
While I don't add write like that personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. There's no "we can do better than that" about it. It's a style, styles are subjective.
Apparently that style of writing has some popularity on Tumblr, and while I’ve never spent much time there, I’ve got enough friends who adopted the style to be familiar with it. That said, I remember when I first came across it and I agree it was a bit jarring in a way I can’t articulate.
I think it’s just another way of adding a proxy of tone or emphasis or body language that text fundamentally lacks. But to my mind, it achieves much the same result as cramming hyphens between words to create a phrase/concept to refer to (state-of-the-art). Or to italicise the name of a book, or a film, or ship etc (UNSC Pillar of Autumn). And it can create gravitas with the emphasis too (The Boy Who Lived).
For me it's sometimes just mobile error. Especially anytime I want to use a abbrieviated term and it feels a need to capitalize the word afterwwards (using e.g. is probably more trouble than it's worth with my current keyboard setup).
Insufferable. The author repeatedly confuses his own opinion for fact.
If a piece of software doesn't do what you need, then don't use it. No one needs to justify why they don't use FOSS software. Sometimes we pay for proprietary software and that's perfectly fine.
He almost sounds like he wants to dismiss the concept of FOSS entirely. Ultimately, this is just a rant with no real point made.
based on the self-described background, that may be the point. If you grow up lower income you may be used to resorting to cheap but inefficient methods to squeeze every penny out. So the act of paying for a premium service can be seen as giving up. Doubly so with a technical background where you spend so much time tinkering under the hood.
I don't think you need to justify it, but it's always a good question to keep in the back of your mind:
Those can all determine when it's best to use a proprietary solution, and when it may be best to instead utilize something you can truly own. There's no one answer to that, and nothing is truly forever (Unity users in particular feeling that this month).
I'll disagree with that, hard. If you don't need the complexity of Kubernetes, avoiding it is a good decision. A docker-compose on a single host still has advantages over raw deployment on a VM, and raw deployment on a VM isn't a bad choice for production either (if you're still using proper confiuration management, mind).
While I agree a Pi in the closet isn't a genuine solution for most... I'd bet a nickle 6 $2,000 servers co-located in 2 datacenters can handle a lot more load than many people would give them credit for.
While I generally agree with the sentiment behind what this person is saying, I'm rather annoyed about his attitude in regards to Dia. There are many reasons to dislike Dia - it's got an annoying interface, and more importantly it hasn't seen a new release in years, which has a host of related issues.
But the only thing that they seem to care about is that it's old and unfashionable. Does it do everything he wants out of it? Who knows; they don't even mention trying it out, and the only clue they did is a screenshot with a diagram with a single element labeled with a condescending remark.
I also don't know why they didn't try Inkscape. It does everything they seem to require.
The link about vector networks in Figma is interesting.
I spent some time last year trying to get into vector art with Affinity Designer. Being limited to paths was maddeningly counterintuitive. How has this not become the default everywhere?
Just use Excalidraw.