Hi,
>>"George" == George Bonser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> if they call me a geek, I call them a luser
George> Manoj, I find that remark disturbing. That is who you are
George> writing the software for.
No. No. No. Let me put that foul canard to rest. I do *NOT*,
repeat *NOT* write software for darned users. I write software
because it pleases my muse, and becuase I feel like contributing to
the free software community. This has come up before (in the debate
that preceded Bruce's leaving the project).
No one dictates why I write the software. And, when it came up
the last time, my views were shared by a fair segment of the
developers.
George> The luser community produces the developers over time.
George> Without a stong and vital user base, you will not attract a
George> good developer community. If something happens to make Debian
George> user-hostile and your user base dwindles, you will find that
George> your developer base will dwindle as well.
We are not user hostile. We are trying harder than ever for
ease of use issues, for ease of use is a hallmark of a great
technical distribution. However, we shall not be coerced by people
saying "we are the users, we are never wrong, and when we say jump,
you ask how high". Hell, no.
George> The user community must have some kind of influence on the
George> development community or they will go where their needs are
George> being met.
Precisely. And Debian is not trying tobe the OS for
everyone. We are trying for a certain niche. Debian may wel be the
distribution people graduate to, after red hat.
George> The market decides what is best, not the manufacturer. If
George> nobody uses it, it is a waste of time making it.
The developers use it. For me, that is sufficient
audience. There are other members of the free software community who
understand what communal spirit is all about, and they are likely to
use it too. And as long as we retain techncal excellence, we shall
have people.
George> If commercial applications are available for all version
George> except Debian, then Debian will never be more than a hobbyist
George> distribution because few of the lusers will even try it.
What's wrong with that? Already, wordperfect is not available
for Debian as a debian package. Oracle is unlikely to create a Debian
package. Suse has servers that are not available as .debs either; nor
are commercial X servers, or motif, or ....
I refuse to be browbeaten by threats of Debia's premature
demise. I shall continue to work on making Debian as good a
distribution as I can, but I listen to technical arguments, not
marketing pleas.
I do not think that shall kill Debian. And anyway, it would be
better for debian to die rather than compromise on principles.
manoj
--
Trained mules are excellent, and so are thoroughbred horses from the
Sindh, and so are great battle elephants, but more excellent than
them all is a disciplined man. 322
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
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