zaterdag, maart 12, 2005

Another one misunderstanding "NO WARRANTY"

Here's another guy who doesn't seem to get it. Thom Holwerda posted on eXpert Zone:

OSS developers should learn to live with the fact that their software is no longer exclusively used by geeks and enthusiasts -- and if they cannot cope with this, then clearly state that your software is a hobby project

No, no, no. Most GNOME software -of which he's talking- uses the (L)GPL license. The GPL clearly states that there is *NO* warranty.

And furthermore, even if it was no hobby project and someone working in a company got the permission to release the developed software using the GPL license, then again, the users have no right to demand the implementation of the features they want. It's a gift. Accept it or ignore it.

4 opmerkingen:

Takis zei

All I'm asking for is to take a better look at user feedback, for the better of the project. That's all. Is that too much to ask?
Actually, yes. If I write software in my spare time, and am kind enough to give it out for free with all source code, the receiver should be happy with it or ignore it. The software is given out for free so anyone with similar needs can use it. The source code is given along with it so anyone with not so similar needs and coding competence, can adapt it to his/her needs.

I does not give anyone any right to complain to the donator about the software not meeting their needs.

Gnome claims to be enterprise-ready and user-centric. If you make such bold claims-- then live up to it. If you can't, then don't claim it.
Gnome is being developed to be user-centric and it is. If you compare Gnome to older true hacker projects you'll notice a difference: Gnome is all about the unexperienced enduser. Projects such as Qemu, ffmpeg, transcode, screen, wget, ccache, valgrind and most other OS or FS applications have no graphical user interface whatsoever.

GNOME's a bunch of people developing a huge amount of infrastructure to make applications userfriendly and lots of applications which are userfriendly.

That's indeed the projects goal. So, yes they are user-centric. They spend a huge amount of time to make open source software user-friendly. But again, it's GPL, which gives you no right to disrespect the developers, but gives you the right to use and adapt the software.

If there's anyone that should be annoyed it should be the Gnome developers, for the lack of new developers. I'm really curious
how many new developers joined to work on Gnome during the last years and how many new users they've attracted during that same period.

No need to paraphrase everything here.
Hey, I like paraphrasing.

Anoniem zei

As a typical user that would love FOSS/Linux to succeed I can tell you the biggest barriar to the success of FOSS/Linux are developers with closed ears.

Despite themselves some of these projects obtain some modicum of success and it breeds contempt. These developers believe that everyone should accept their decisions and be done with it. They release the code and thats the way it is, like it our not. So be it.

And those that refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The nice thing about this is that the market will sort this out. Keep developing with a deaf ear towards users and you will get the situation you are driving for, people moving on to other projects that are flexible with features.

No one is asking that developers implement everything everyone wants, but if you don't implement things most people want you'll eventually hit a wall. Take a look at Cedega (which I've supported for years now), its users get to vote on the features they want most. Thats being responsive to what the real world needs in a product.

Anyway it is what it is and it will continue to be so. Hey, I heard Ubuntu is coming out with a KDE version.

Anoniem zei

That's indeed the projects goal. So, yes they are user-centric. They spend a huge amount of time to make open source software user-friendly.So, why do they ignore feature requests of users then? Just curious...

Anoniem zei

I think there are a lot of frustrations out there. When you react to something (ask for extra feature, give some comment, ...) you expect a reaction back. If you don't get anything, not even a small note, it is frustrating.

I added an extra feature to a project called: giFTcurs. I sent the changed code with explanation to the developpers. I asked if they could add it to their next release and that I was happy to help them in the future. But I never got an answer. Not even a note with: it is not possible for this or that reason. This is frustrating and it will not encourage me to add more features. Their new version came out and my feature was not in it, so... frustrating.