“I have a suggestion for Microsoft — no fancy programming required. Just let us users hang out a "Do Not Disturb" sign. Then leave us alone. We're dreaming.”

— Ellen Ullman

[The Boss in the Machine, The New York Times, A15, San Francisco, 03624331, 19 February 2005]

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Ellen Ullman 3

American writer 1949

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

“You have to be taught to leave us alone. Leave us alone.”

Stirling Silliphant (1918–1996) American screenwriter and film producer

David Zellaby (Martin Stephens), Village of the Damned (speaking to his uncle about himself and the other alien children) (1960).

“This is generally true: any sizeable piece of program, or even a complete program package, is only a useful tool that can be used in a reliable fashion, provided that the documentation pertinent for the user is much shorter than the program text. If any machine or system requires a very thick manual, its usefulness becomes for that very circumstance subject to doubt!”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra, "On the reliability of programs" https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD303.html (EWD 303).
Unknown date

“I don't know myself, what to do, where to go… I lie in the crack of a book for my comfort… it's what the world offers… please leave me alone to dream as I fancy.”

William H. Gass book Omensetter's Luck

Source: Omensetter's Luck

“There was no point. It's already done. Let's leave that alone. I mean, if you're not going to come there with something new, then just leave it alone.”

John Leguizamo (1964) Colombian and American actor, film producer, voice artist, and comedian

John Leguizamo Talks About "Assault on Precinct 13", January 16, 2005, asked whether he would have taken the role if it was merely a remake.

“We're gambling on our vision, and we would rather do that than make "me too" products. Let some other companies do that. For us, it's always the next dream.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Interview about the release of the Macintosh (24 January 1984) - (online video) http://pulsar.esm.psu.edu/Faculty/Gray/graphics/movies/sj84.mov
1980s

“Pour ourselves a glass of stout
And let our Rael Brook shirts hang out
Nothing makes us more content
To let us wallow in a bit of nonsense”

Colin Moulding (1955) English bassist, songwriter and vocalist

"Frivolous Tonight"
Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)

“If the users don't control the program, the program controls the users. With proprietary software, there is always some entity, the "owner" of the program, that controls the program—and through it, exercises power over its users. A nonfree program is a yoke, an instrument of unjust power.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

Free Software Is Even More Important Now (September 2013) https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html
2010s

“I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.This "users are idiots, and are confused by functionality" mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.Please, just tell people to use KDE.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Message to usability@gnome.org mailing list, 2005-12-12, 2006-08-28, Torvalds, Linus http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-December/msg00021.html,
2000s, 2005

“You hang me now, but I'm not alone. There are two hundred million of us. You can't hang us all. They will avenge me.”

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923–1941) Soviet resistance member of World War II and Heroine of the Soviet Union

Quoted in №34. "Очерк Петра Александровича Лидова "Таня" http://zoyakosmodemyanskaya.ru/books5-34.htm

“I have a suggestion for Microsoft — no fancy programming required. Just let us users hang out a "Do Not Disturb" sign. Then leave us alone. We're dreaming.”

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