Re: [PATCH] Stop scaring users with "treason uncloaked!"

Lennart Sorensen
2009-01-26T18:10:56Z

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 05:06:13PM -0600, Matt Mackall wrote:
> No one has printer ports any more so it hardly seems worth the trouble.

USB printers go through the same code.

> Most people won't actually think their printer is on fire. But most
> people WILL think there is serious cause for concern when they see this
> for the first time in dmesg. Many will search the net for explanations
> and come away confused and not entirely reassured. And at least one
> clueless guy will call the police because he still thinks he's under
> attack.

I dealt with an epson inkjet (USB based) a few years ago that would
reliably trigger that message when it was out of ink. I thought it was
ammusing that they picked that signal to indicate out of ink.

Not sure if current models do it too.

> Now that certainly fits my definition of amusing and if my goal for
> Linux was to amuse myself at the expense of users, I'd be all for
> keeping it[1]. But perversely, I actually want users to enjoy their
> Linux experience.
>
> [1] Hell, I'd probably even get them to use git.

--
Len Sorensen