Please don't misunderstand this article: it's not about removing checkboxes or functionality, it's about an opportunity to change the UI of settings to a better

Please don't misunderstand this article: it's not about removing checkboxes or functionality, it's about an opportunity to change the UI of settings to a better one. I was so happy reading this because it seems that some big dogs are finally realizing the problem that I noticed some time ago [1], but I'm nowhere near as good at elaborating my points or causing change. The innate problem with checkboxes is that while they communicate if something is on or off, they don't communicate what the optimized default value was (and unless you know what you're doing and a have a good reason to override it, it's probably better to leave it alone). The reason extensions are mentioned has little to do with whether 3rd or 1st parties make them, but rather that their UI has a beautiful property: by default your extensions list is empty (ala clean slate), and everything just works. Fixing unwanted issues is easy because it's just a matter of removing unwanted extensions from an explicit list of changes appled. I think the main takeaway message here is that the UI for software settings can be made better without crippling the customizability or flexibility. Just present a view where it's easy to see what's been changed. [1] https://github.com/shurcooL/Software-Settings/wiki/Software-Settings https://github.com/shurcooL/Software-Settings/wiki/Software-...