On Dec 19, 2010, at 11:58 AM, Bryan Hoyt | Brush Technology wrote:
Forgive me if this is just flamebait, but I think multiple options for the same function is usually a bad idea. Sure, OSS is all about choice, but more often than not (without having done extensive research on the subject), one very-well-designed option that everyone stood behind would have served the community better than 2 or 3 choices that cause endless disagreements.
Information keeps coming out that "one true way" just does not exist. Quantitative studies show that multiple options are actually best.
It's confusion and non-discoverability that need to be kept down. Often people try to limit confusion by limiting choice, but that is an artificial approach.
Malcom Gladwell explains it quite well in this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html
This is especially applicable here where you have a bit of software used by very technically minded people for doing diagrams & illustration, artists of all sorts using it for creative purposes, software engineers using it for UML sketches and flow diagrams, etc.