Comment 172 for bug 332945

Peter Whittaker wrote:
> On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 19:55 +0000, Mark Shuttleworth wrote:
>
>> I think it's important that we not treat the OS specially,
>>
>
> Mark, thanks for your comments. I think this one area where there is
> considerable disagreement: The OS is different - when the computer needs
> to tell me something, I probably shouldn't ignore it. Think firealarm.
>
Yes, that's true. But there are some apps that have fire alarms too -
imagine, for example, an app which monitors your RAID array and alerts
you to failures and issues.

My point is that we should have clear guidelines about what constitutes
each mode of operation, and we should follow those as rigorously with
the OS as we would hope apps do, as well. As soon as we make exceptions
for ourself we are weakening our argument, a bit like politicians who
give themselves raises and take their expenses out of the public eye at
the same time as they are ridiculing bankers for their pay.

I *think* we're in agreement here :-)

Mark