Comment 122 for bug 438536

The default positioning in 9.10 screams "broken" to me. I was almost certain some app was wrong about my screen resolution and was mis-placing the bubbles. I never would have dreamed it was a design decision.

That said, "less customization" *is* definitely the way to go for the masses. Less is more these days. Look at the wild popularity of netbooks, Apple products, etc. -- extremely minimalistic and all the more functional for the most common usage patterns. And usage patterns are narrow and narrowing (web). People just want things to work out of the box. We (the masses) want stateless, androgynous black boxes with as much style, soul, and instant usability as possible. We don't want to know how it works, and we don't care to change it. But only if the default behaviors are spot-on in the first place.

That doesn't mean you can't have an "advanced" mode for the tinkerers. I used to be a tinkerer too, and that's great. But now I've got work to do...