On Wed, 23 Aug 2017 14:17:58 -0700
Rick Moen <rick@???> wrote:

> Quoting Stephen Dennison (stephenrd@???):
>
> > No, I mean, I literally don't understand the use of the words chosen
> > and how they're supposed to modify each other. Based on your
> > interpretation, my guesswork of his intended usage of the acronym
> > was more or less accurate, but I don't understand the choice of
> > words themselves.
>
> Steve wants a word denoting 'either a window manager or a desktop
> environment, and I really don't care which of them it is, or want to
> hear about the distinction'. Like many a computerist before him, he
> decided to fill this _alleged_ need by coining a new expression that's
> painfully ungainly and, if anything, anti-mnemonic.
>
> Remember the misbegotten push for everyone to please adopt the
> goofy initialism 'FLOSS'[1] (or 'FOSS') based on the supposed need to
> bury the (alleged) distinction between 'free software' and 'open
> source' by switching to a third term? This is the same sort of
> tactical + strategic error, saying to people 'Here, let me simplify
> reality by burying the difference between _two_ things by inventing a
> _third_ thing.'


Pre-cisely! Although Free Software and Open Source are pretty similar
regarding privileges granted and responsibilities required, when you
wanted to ask whether something was free as in liberty, no matter how
you framed the question, and argument would start between those
advocating "Free Software" and those advocating "Open Source". The
creation of the word FOSS buried that problem six feet under.

>
> Uh-huh. Seen that.
> https://xkcd.com/927/

That's not relevant to this particular discussion, as it discusses a
standard, not a term to unify two terms that, at least from a certain
viewpoint, are the same thing.

Certain viewpoint? Exactly. Most computer users don't care whether
their GOSFUI *has* a window manager or *is* a window manager, they use
one of the terms to mean the union, and some literal guy forks the
discussion by discussing a different viewpoint, from which the
distinction has import.

Back to the current discussion. The slim login screen could easily give
one a choice between KDE (which everyone would term a Desktop
Environment) and DWM (which everyone would term a Window Manager). What
word or phrase does the screen use to subsume both choices.

And forget "session", because if one needs to, as you put it in a
different email, slim parses /usr/share/xsessions/. That's an
implementation detail, not a commonly used terminology.

SteveT