On 11/30/2020 9:07 AM, Theodore Y. Ts'o wrote:
So I wonder if this whole, long, debate, is really more about people who don't want to deal with any kind of change, because while*this* change might be relatively easy to work around, the*next* one might require a bit more work. But the long-term question about how access portals and other technologies should get retired is still going to remain.
I would refrain from assuming what motivates people -- not inside their brains and all that. Some of that is probably a form of conservatism, but I also see something else, a reluctance to "rely on the web" and a desire for simple tools. FTP is pretty uncomplicated: ask for a file, get a file (at least in binary mode). The web on the other end mixes lots of stuff together -- page composition and formatting, use or avoidance of surveillance tools, detection and specific handling of different MIME types, etc. The web constantly evolves. The evolution is driven by a mix of usability concerns, business concerns, security requirements, and also the need to visualize the pages and support interactions on a variety of platforms. We may debate whether FTP is the right tool today, but we should acknowledge that they might be a role for simple tools that do just one thing and do it well.
-- Christian Huitema
