On Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 11:45:27AM -0700, chad wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 3:31 AM <tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
> 
> > But the argument "it's more popular, so it must be better" is too naive, I
> > think.

[...]

> try emacs but go (back) to VSCode, because ...". Usually, that sentence
> ends in some form of "it's much easier/more intuitive to get started" or
> "it's quick/easy/obvious how to get it to 'it just-works'".
> 
> In other words, the popularity is a symptom, not a cause.

This is exactly the point I was putting in question: My
take is that popularity is part of a giant feedback loop,
so it's *both*, a symptom and a cause. And a (non-negligible)
set of forces driving that feedback loop are the marketing
departments of big corps [1]. They wouldn't be doing their
jobs if it weren't so.

Failing to see this leads to this over-eager "how can we
change Emacs to make it more popular" thing, instead of
to a more balanced view, where potential changes are
judged against a more complete set of principles and
goals (newcomer friendliness surely being one of them!).

[...]

Cheers

[1] Whose goals and values don't always align with ours,
   to put it politely.

 - t