I'm calling bullshit on injecting an absurd dichotomy between choosing software based on the author's personality versus "reading every single line of code of the software running on your system". It is possible to choose software based on qualities inherent in the software and not know or care about the personality or personal matters of the author. And it is possible to do this without "reading every single line of code of the software running on your system".

Those qualities of the software and its design, what I call "software aesthetics" might include, among other things, the size of the program, its resource requirements, dependencies, configuration, and even, yes, the source code itself. Nowhere did I suggest that I read "every line" of every source code file comprising the operating system I use.

Where possible I do selectively read and sometimes edit some of these files. With respect to third party software, I often do read every file. I prefer software that is small enough where I can do this. But what does the idea of reading "every line of code" in an (operating) system have to do with my original comment? Nothing.

In any event, since you have shifted the discussion to (operating) systems, I can confirm I did not choose the (operating) system I use based on the "personality" of its authors. I chose it because of the "software aesthetics" reflected in the software itself. As I see it, this might include an appreciation for the command line and small program size, manual configuration by the user and having all options off by default, documentation, portability and "clean code", among other things. People making comments in email or on the www on whether they like or dislike the authors of this software did not affect my decision to use it.

The point of my original comment was simple: someone may choose software based on the software itself, not the author's personality, whatever that may be. I thought this is worth considering in response to the parent comment that "Personality is important". But others may disagree.

I would like to end this exchange now. I appreciate your input.