On Thu, 8 Oct 2009, Tom \"spot\" Callaway wrote:
I've been thinking a lot about how I want to respond to this thread.
Here are my thoughts:
* I am troubled by the subtext of the repeated questioning of "What is
Fedora", because I really don't think that is the question that is being
asked. Instead, I think the question being asked (or at least, the
question being answered) is: "Who is Fedora (the Linux Distribution) for?"
If indeed, we are attempting to answer that question, it implies that
there are users for whom Fedora is not, and will never be, a good fit.
Even if this is practically true, it bothers me that we are saying that
out loud. We're telling folks, go somewhere else if you don't fit into
this nice box, don't bother trying to improve Fedora in those areas.
We're already doing that. We've been doing that all along. If you want to
make fedora better for some piece of closed source software: go somewhere
else. If you want to make fedora use a bsd-core: go somewhere else.
We draw those lines all the time. All this thread has suggested so far is
let's narrow it down a bit more. Let's make it more than just
freesoftware, linux people. Let's make it freesoftware/linux people that
have a minimum level of experience.
Hypothetically, if the Desktop SIG answered "Who is the target audience
for the Fedora Desktop Spin?" with "Experienced Linux users and
developers", I could easily see the value in organizing a "Fedora
Simple" Spin, where the answer is "New Linux users", with a separate spin.
And the problem in both of these cases is this:
you make certain choices based on who you are targetting. If you go to
much toward the new user you piss off the advanced user. And since we
CANNOT replace pkgs in spins - then we either have 27 'alternatives' or we
do an arse-load of changes in %post to accomodate one set of users or the
other.
We've been over this OVER AND OVER AND OVER again, Tom. When we had
the FAD in RDU back in the summer you even conceded the point
that you cannot develop for EVERYONE all at once. I believe it was
Notting's point.
The point I've always made is the same. You've made your choice. You are
of the opinion that Fedora should be targetting new users first and
foremost. Great. I'm glad you've made your choice - but if you continue to
present the claim that you can develop for all users at all times you are
begging the question. That's what is demobilizing the discussion.
That's the CRUX of the problem.
-sv
_______________________________________________
fedora-advisory-board mailing list
fedora-advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-advisory-board
