On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 07:17:15PM +0200, Bart Schouten wrote:
> I just mean is that you shouldn't try to expand the scope of your userbase
> beyond what is reasonable possible because it is not possible anyway
That is a fairly defeatist attitude.
> and you should recognise that you *are* a technical system of a certain
> amount of detail and expertise that is required to use it.
Debian allows those who want to, to look under the hood and do a lot of
"interesting" things. However, "a certain level of [...] expertise" is
certainly not *required* to *use* it. When I installed Debian for my
parents, they could use it with very little problems (they have since
chosen to move away from Debian for unrelated reasons, but that does not
take away the fact that they found it usable).
I think that that is a feature, and that we should try to avoid losing
it.
> And that it is also /difficult/ to a certain extent. And that's okay
> too.
I don't think so. Making something difficult is the best way to avoid
getting more users. Not getting more users is the best way to avoid
getting more developers. Not getting more developers is the best way to
lose traction, which would get us into oblivion.
--
< ron> I mean, the main *practical* problem with C++, is there's like a dozen
people in the world who think they really understand all of its rules,
and pretty much all of them are just lying to themselves too.
-- #debian-devel, OFTC, 2016-02-12
