From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 7 10:51:19 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EC0C737B401 for ; Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:51:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from sccrmhc02.attbi.com (sccrmhc02.attbi.com [204.127.202.62]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1DAAF43FB1 for ; Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:51:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: from localhost.localdomain (12-231-22-47.client.attbi.com[12.231.22.47]) by attbi.com (sccrmhc02) with ESMTP id <2003060717511800200dmlspe>; Sat, 7 Jun 2003 17:51:18 +0000 Received: from localhost.localdomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.9/8.12.5) with ESMTP id h57HomKc074120; Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:50:49 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.12.9/8.12.5/Submit) id h57HobAA074117; Sat, 7 Jun 2003 10:50:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from swear@attbi.com) X-Authentication-Warning: localhost.localdomain: jojo set sender to swear@attbi.com using -f To: Rahul Siddharthan References: <20030605165217.A388@online.fr> <20030607021309.GC86974@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20030607134841.GA13998@online.fr> From: swear@attbi.com (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: 07 Jun 2003 10:50:37 -0700 In-Reply-To: <20030607134841.GA13998@online.fr> Message-ID: Lines: 17 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Peeve: why "i386"? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 07 Jun 2003 17:51:20 -0000 Rahul Siddharthan writes: > Whoever wrote the front page recognised that many newcomers will read > "i386" as a pessimisation (eg, will imagine that it doesn't support This thread reminds me of the time I tried to get dates like "1991" off the footers of displayed man pages (e.g., man(1)) for fear of what newcomers/outsiders might think. Or when I tried to replace some system programmer's jargon with something newcomers are more apt to understand. Which brings to mind a great song from one of the few plays I've seen: "Tradition!", from "The Fiddler on the Roof". Now, tradition has it's good uses, but in too many cases it's just a cheap excuse for unatractive motives like the desire to remind others of one's glorious past or the desire to consider others stupid because they don't understand one's jargon.