Re: Distros specifically designed for children

On 2025-05-28, Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:

Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> wrote:

At the moment, all cars that take unleaded petrol take the same size
fuel nozzle at the petrol station.  You do not have a choice when you
buy a car, what size nozzle you can accomodate.  You do not have a
choice, when you go to a petrol station, to use a larger nozzle which
could deliver fuel faster.  The tyranny!

>
That's a leftover from the days of the transition away from leaded
gasoline to unleaded gasoline.  For quite some time, both were
available (from different pumps, obviously) and the smaller unleaded
nozzle opening was meant to prevent folks from accidentally filling
their "unleaded only" vehicle with leaded fuel.  Doing so would very
quickly subject them to a very expensive replacement of a clogged
catlytic converter.  The leaded gas nozzle simply did not fit into the
opening, and served as a huge "hint" that one was trying to pump the
wrong fuel into the tank.
>
It likely persists, even in locations where leaded gasoline has not
been sold for decades, due to the fact that politicians seldom ever go
revise old laws that have become outdated due to time.  So there's
likely still a statute line in some old law somewhere mandating the
smaller nozzle size for unleaded pumps to prevent accidential filling
with leaded gasoline.  Because that law likely still exists, the
regulations created from it that specified the size also likely still
exist, and none of the filling stations want to risk being fined for
"failure to comply" so that's the nozzle size now, for all the pumps,
long after its actual reason for being came to an end.
>

Having different sizes is a good mechanical method of preventing filling
using the wrong fuel.  Whether the standard was just happenstance or a
defined standard, the point is that fact that we could now potentially
introduce a choice, but there isn't one, doesn't really limit peoples
freedom.

My argument is that lack of choice doesn't always mean a tyranny or lack
of freedom, when there is no real meaningful, useful, or profitable
choice to be made.  I argue that some of the differences between distros
are "Choices" of this type.  Largely irrelevant to most users.