On Fri, 2 Jan 2015 20:12:12 +0100 Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > IMOH it isn't wise to ignore backwards compatibility. And btw. I > dislike the claims mentioned by a link ... > "Linux has never been about ‘choice’ or ‘freedom’ and those myths > should just die out." ... underpinned with a link to redhat :(. IMHO > Johannes Löthberg is completely wrong, likely a maintainer for the > wrong distro. I'm going to disagree with you on both counts. While maintaining backward compatibility is a good thing, there is often a cost, and very often that cost is too high. In this case, maintaining cruft and additional code complexity in order to maintain a feature that should never be used anyway simply isn't worth it to the authors/maintainers of the software in question. Without going completely into the battle that can be started by the link you mentioned, what about the "choice and freedom" of the authors? Don't they have the "choice and freedom" to write their software as they see fit? This would certainly seem to trump the "choice and freedom" of those that contribute nothing. Doug
