A Pursuit of Simplicity

quiltro.org

10 points·luu··6 comments

Here's another one: Don't write blog posts that are just a superficial attack on someone else's hobby project. Write out of love.

If you don't like a technical solution, surely you could come up with a better argument than calling the authors "mindless software extremists"? This in the same breath as saying "create out of love" really does not come across convincing.

https://suckless.org/philosophy/

Why so much hostility towards suckless? They've made a handfull of programs and some of the work well. The author hasn't even linked any software they've made despite saying that they "spent most of my free time writing code".

Another form of FOSS entitlement maybe.

It's ok for some quirky opinionated things to just exist, to be non-inclusive, the preference of a minority. If they are not being forced upon everyone their is no justification for evaluating them as some kind of absolutist existential threat, doing so is basically an attack on freedom of expression.

The author should also consider that Suckless has formed the seeds of software that do not strictly adhere to it's philosophy. Ideas that are unappealing or impractical for the masses can still be useful to the masses, and if not, they should just leave them the fuck alone.

True simplicity is a complete fucking myth. Every system is complicated at some level if you drill deep enough. What tends to matter is how many concepts you have to keep in your head with working with something. To that end, I agree with the author: suckless tools tend to actually bring a lot of grimey details to the forefront, at least in my fairly limited experience.

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