On Fri, 2006-05-19 at 00:19 -0500, Christofer C. Bell wrote: > On 5/18/06, Steffen Kluge <kluge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > What on earth gave you the idea that free software development is a > > democracy?? If you contribute something valuable you have influence, if > > you only hold your hand open you have to take what you're given. No > > amount of whining in public mailing lists is going to change that. > > > > Think about it. > > We contribute by using the software. If people end up not using, then > all the development effort is wasted. Then again, maybe the few > hundred people that work on GNOME want to have their own private > desktop while everyone else finds something else to use. > > Think about it. > > -- > Chris > Exactly. There is no widely used software that is developed in a vacuum. M$ depends heavily on focus groups, in order to find those features of their GUI that would be appreciated by the public as a whole. They understand that users will vote with their pocketbooks, therefore they are very sensitive to their interface with the public, which is the GUI. In the Linux world, users are also voting. They vote by using the software. Or not. This is not trivial, on the contrary it is quite profound, as Chris has pointed out. This is the nexus where the software becomes relevant or non-relevant. Bug reports are fine for bugs, but a bug report with commentary on particular behavior is likely to elicit responses of "this is not a bug, but the expected behavior"; or more likely no response at all. There is therefore a place for commentary on behavior and this is exactly one of those places. LX -- °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Kites rise highest against the wind -- not with it. -- Winston Churchill Registered Linux User #268899 http://counter.li.org/ °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
