Peeve: why "i386"?

[Bill Moran]

Gary W. Swearingen wrote:
> Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd at online.fr> 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

Now ... I don't think that's completely a bad thing

> or the desire to consider others stupid because they
> don't understand one's jargon.

You know ... the way this year's been going ... about the only good thing
I can say is that I've really enjoyed considering other people stupid
because they don't understand my jargon.  Please don't take that away from
me ... once the debt collectors are through ... it'll be all I have left!

... only slightly sarcastic ...

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com