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Art vs. Reason?
I see Art as any method of expression made by a person (or group of persons) with the purpose of communicate a feeling.
By the other hand, the Reason follows a more practical approach. The expression could be the same itself, but not the meaning (or the cause).In the world of Proprietary Software, there’s no place for Art in itself. Every decision (correct or wrong) is generated by a reasonable thought.
However, now we are staring at a new phenomenon. Isn’t programming a form of expression? Isn’t it Art, when the code comes from the desire of the programmer to express (or realize) his/her dream? Well, I think it is.Reason is something entirely Human. And Art is too.
In the Free Software world, much of the code is generated in an artistic way. This is totally admirable and I love it. By the other hand, many people in the Free Software Movement enjoy trying to make the best software available, without any concerns of personal taste.The best thing is: you can take both of them. Look at architecture for example. I live in the oldest part of Buenos Aires. And I live in front of a gorgeous building, a master piece in architecture, which is also a extremely comfortable set of offices. Art is there (search for the Palacio Barolo in images.google.com and you’ll now what I’m talking about) and Reason is there too (the functional building don’t let me lie).
What is this all about? Is about flame. Yes. I’m tired of watching big flames between the two Top Desktops (read KDE and GNOME), and it’s all about this in a way or another. Which belongs to each group is an exercise for the reader.Things like ‘you do not follow up the HIGs’, ‘your desktop in minimalistic’, etc., just doesn’t go anywhere.
A guy strictly following the Human Interface Guidelines in his search of the ‘Ultimate Friendly Interface’ is an extraordinary professional person to me. However, the other guy spending his free time trying to design the interface he always dreamed of, is extraordinary to me too.The best part if: none of the above is wrong. There’s no wrong in creativity. They’re both entirely human features.
Who cares if one app uses one toolkit, and the rest of the desktop another one? It’s not the best thing in ‘reasonable terms’, but at the end of the day, the user has the word, and the user will use the thing he/she is more comfortable with. Choice. Tolerance. Collaboration. As far as I remember, that’s what brought us here in the first place.Happy Desktopping!
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