**Ready your Flame-Throwers**
Yo-
I am subscribed to devel although I am not a developer and since everyone
else has had comments on Bruce's message so do I.
It seems to me that the problem is difference in opinion on the direction
of Debian.
Unlike most of you (I presume) I have chosen to study business instead of
computer science of some variety. I have seen that a group of developers
would like to see Debian as the most technically advanced distribution at
a cost of time and user-friendliness. On the other hand, we have those
developers that have a vision of Debian being more user-friendly and less
technical.
I can presume that these same arguments were occuring in board rooms of
the Big-3 auto-makers in the U.S. in the late 70's and early 80's. The
problem is that Debian is presuming what the "average" or "mainstream"
computer user wants. This is wrong. The focus should be on the
"customer" and therein lies Debian's problem. Who are the developers
"working" for? Are you in it to make Debian for hackers, for business
or for home use? It is very hard if not impossible to achieve all of
these. Why do companies segment their products? Why do they do selective
marketing? WHO IS DEBIAN FOR? Does Sun make Solaris with the intent of
home users running it? No. They made their product based on what their
customers wanted. Microsoft tries this but their technical side is crap.
Why not find out what computer users want? Why don't you segment Debian
into two divisions? Like Microsoft does with it's products (except both
Debians would retain superior technial ability). A Debain for a newbie
and a Debian for "power-users"? I'm not sure how much work that would
entail because I am not a developer.
I can tell you right now that no Linux distribution will conquer Microsoft
or anyone else if they can not market themselves and release when they say
they will. Being technically supreme will get you no where unless it is
matched at least equally with ease in installation, visibility, customer
support, and product reliablilty.
Debian, in it's current state, focuses on being technically superior with
*excellent* support but lacks ease in installation and marketing. (Note I
said marketing, not marketability.)
Debian needs to be easier to install and it needs visibility to those who
would purchase Windows.
If Bruce wishes to make a more user-friendly distribution I wish he would
do it under the guise of Debian. Excuse the comparison but if Bruce's
"Easy Debian" or whatever the name is could do for Debian what Window's 95
did for Microsoft,all of Debian would be *far* better off.
RedHat already has the ease in install and visibility so all they have to
do is get their technical and support side better.
The question is: Who is Debian for and where do you see it one year from
now? ..five years from now?
-Ian
_____________________________________________________________________
Ian K. Setford ians@jove.acs.unt.edu
H: 940.566.0461
Pgr: 817.901.0255
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: