[wplug] xwinman.org

Brandon Kuczenski brandon at 301south.net
Sat Jan 29 00:57:34 EST 2005


Wow, I've been reading your webpage on choosing different window managers 
(particularly this: http://www.xwinman.org/basics.html ) and I really 
appreciate it.  It's technically correct and proficient, but it's also 
prepared with the intention of informing someone who might know very 
little about their system.

I consider myself to be pretty seasoned as far as working with open-source 
software.  I run a server (on FreeBSD) with mail and web and filesharing, 
scheduled automatic backups and so on.  I love to tune and tweak things 
and make it run properly, like I used to do with my car.  I'm primarily a 
mechanical engineer by training, so it's only secondarily that I've gotten 
into computers and system administration, but I've really taken to it.  I 
also try to advocate for open source software and I'm trying to get my 
family to use email addresses from me rather than hotmail or such.

At the same time, when I try to use a Linux computer as a desktop (or, in 
my case, a laptop) I just fall down.  Things that should be simple seem 
arbitrarily complicated, and I can zoom in, fractal-like, on any iota of 
complexity and feel intimidated by it.  I work through this, obviously, 
and I take it as a point of pride that my laptop performs tasks 
competitively (and often, in my eyes, superiorly) when compared to a 
modern Windows computer.

Still, it's web pages like yours that remind me that I used to be as 
boggled by Windows as I am by the obscurities of loadable kernel modules 
and how to change window managers now.  I've had to struggle to learn how 
everything works, but sometimes I find documentation that spells 
everything out.  Your contribution of your time to documentation like this 
is the sort of thing that's going to make open source software work on a 
larger scale.  I could imagine members of my family reading a page like 
this, at some date in the future, when maybe it could be possible to find 
computers running OSS in ordinary workplaces, and making use of the 
instructions in order to provide themselves a better computing experience.

I think Linux is going to be a big deal very soon, and I think it's going 
to carry with it all the more mature open-source stuff that's been going 
on longer (things like X, or UNIX in general) into more mainstream 
consciousness.  People will remember that computers were around before 
Microsoft decided what they would look like and how you should use them. 
They will realize that they should be able to change things on their 
computer if they want to, that informed users are better than protective 
programmers (or, worse, greedy sales executives), and that 
community-supported software has a better chance of meeting the needs of 
the community than software that's tightly controlled.

I like to think that my time spent operating my server and offering email 
addresses to friends and family is hastening that day's arrival, but your 
time spent maintaining this website definitely is.  Thank you tons for 
volunteering your time for such a project (or, if you're being paid to 
maintain xwinman.org, thanks to your employer for supporting open source 
software!)

I thought of a slogan for somebody to use regarding the battle between 
open and proprietary software: "The Revolution will be Documented."  Kind 
of cheesy, but still fun.

Regards,
-Brandon



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