Re: Was the release of Debian 2.0 put on Linux Announce?
Hmm. I started this thread, but it moved to a different topic very
quickly! Getting back to the original point: there have been a couple of
responses from people who have said that they did see the release of
Debian 2.0 on Linux Announce, yet I don't think I ever received it ---
I am subscribed to Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu. And there
was a reply from one other person who didn't see it. I wonder whether the
announcement made it to the actual news group, but not to the mailing
list? On the other hand, perhaps I just missed it (but I don't think so
because I was looking out for it).
And while I'm here, perhaps I'll comment on the seemingly running battle
between George Bonser and almost everyone else. I've been disappointed in
the sometimes less than generous attitude displayed in this debate,
especially at George's expense. There have been several posts which have
misrepresented George's arguments in a belittling way. I don't completely
agree with George, but I think he has some good points, and his arguments
certainly warrent more considerate responses than he has always received.
Don't get me wrong --- I'm not saying all the responses were like this ---
a number of responses have been constructive. But there have been too
many that haven't been.
George is obviously a strong supporter of Debian and I would be
greatly saddened if the kind of reaction he received caused him to lose
some of that enthusiasm. As Manoj said, Debian is about being a
community. One of the things that drew me to Debian originally was this
sense of community and of tremendous goodwill. I get the sense that ever
since Bruce left, the Debian morale has dropped, and some of the goodwill
with it. If Debian is to be successful into the future, we need to ensure
morale and goodwill is high. Part of what is needed is that we treat
people with a little more respect than I have seen evidenced in this
debate.
As for the actual debate, I think Manoj is right when he says that
developers can't be __required__ to be motivated by a desire to serve the
users. The developers are donating their own free time to this project
and can't be __required__ to do anything. I imagine motivations of
developers differ across the group. But it seems that striving for
technical excellence is a strong common theme --- something to be grateful
for.
I also have sympathies with some of George's concerns that marketing and
Debian advocasy considerations are not given a high enough priority. On
the one hand I agree with developers when they say they don't wish to
compromise on technical excellence for the sake of marketing
considerations. On the other hand, I think we should take marketing
considerations seriously and do what we can here without compromising
too much on technical aspects.
Technical excellence is about doing something well, and coming up with a
system which is highly capable. One measure of capability is how much
software runs on the system. If RedHat runs a greater variety of
commercial applications than Debian, then in that sense RedHat is
technically superior to Debian (even though in other senses it may be
inferior). I think Debian should strive for technical excellence in every
sense, and part of this requires that we take marketing considerations
seriously.
If we are to see commercial applications ported to Debian, we need to be
expanding our user base. Surely we want the kind of people George refered
to, as users. They are obviously competant in unix and (unlike the
suggestions of some emails) intelligent. Perhaps they are not currently
very "contribute to the free software community" minded, but that may well
change. Indeed, when they see the generosity of the people who have
contributed to make Debian the great system which it is today, I would be
very surprised if at least some of them were not motivated to contribute
in return. By not taking these type of people seriously, I think we could
be missing out on important developers of the future.
Cheers,
Mark.
__________________________________________________________________________
_\________/___\______/___________________________Mark_Phillips___________/
____\__/_____\__/--\__/__________________________mark@ist.flinders.edu.au/
____\__/HE___\__/------APTAIN/ ________________________________
____\__/_____\__/--\__/______/ /__"To be is to do."__I. Kant___/
____\__/______\______/_______/ /__"To do is to be."__A. Sartre_/
/__"I am."____________God_______/
/__Jesus did.___________________/
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