This is one of the best discussions I've seen on this list in a while, and
I appreciate the sentiments. More inline, below.
On Fri, 3 Aug 2007, Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
Chitlesh GOORAH wrote:
On 8/2/07, Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
It's not about who gets the bigger userbase.
It's not about who gets the most users off Windows.
It's not about who gets the most exposure.
And Fedora is not getting killed by Ubuntu either.
Hello,
I tend to agree with Jeroen van Meeuwen's words. However even some
Ubuntu evangelists don't understand this.
I'm going to go out on a limp here and say some stupid things;
Just maybe it's not about what others understand or how we could make
them understand "the Fedora way of life". You're talking about what
Fedora does in the FOSS world and what it means for FOSS that Fedora
does that. That is all so very true and so very much added value to
FOSS. But what users may tend to appreciate more then whatever Fedora
does or stands for:
What is the added value of Fedora for end-users?
Just like I said, I'm going to say some stupid things here;
I'm not convinced Fedora as a distribution has added value for
end-users. I'm sure I haven't seen it all, but then again, consider that
an end-user hasn't either. Sure it's neat and looks great and has this
huge pile of cutting-edge, stable software but that alone doesn't
distinguish Fedora in any particular way. Sure, it has also made,
(co-)developed and distributed items that one way or the other ended up
in other distributions as well.
Most of the added value for Fedora IMHO is in the background; As a
developer and "community member" -which always is a vague term- I value
so much that Fedora is like an engineer's playground. Fedora adapts new
technologies, embraces them and (co-)develops them; Fedora releases
whatever it used to use to make up and build Fedora to the community
instead of having a limited number of key persons maintain it -the
core/extras merge is an example of that. There's other principle matters
that make the Fedora way of life my way of life -at least whenever I'm
behind a keyboard.
And you, Jeroen, are the primary target audience of Fedora.
To whatever degree we may find ourselves "competing" for users, we must
always remember that, with the choices we make, we choose the users who
care most about us. We choose our users with our focus.
What does Ubuntu focus on? "Make it work for the desktop user, at any
cost." Which is a good focus to broaden the impact of Linux generally --
but it requires a lot of compromises.
What does Fedora focus on? "Innovation in free software, in partnership
with the community." And over time, we treat this partnership more and
more seriously, and we put as much power to innovate into the hands of end
users as we possibly can.
I like our focus. I think it's the right focus. And in the long run, I
think it's the focus that pays higher dividends.
No matter how you put it, or what it is you personally admire in Fedora;
Just consider it may be in the background too much for anyone installing
Fedora and navigating the desktop. If you consider that, I'll ask you again:
From the end-user perspective, what is the added value of Fedora?
If you appreciate that point being made you'll also appreciate that it
is not easy to make others understand all these things that make up
Fedora. I gotta say I'm kinda bluntly taking this one side of the medal
out of context just to make a point. I hope whoever reads this does see
I just want to make /a/ point, not put everything in perspective and
make this one point something major, major, major.
Should we make as much effort to convince anyone Fedora has added value
you don't necessarily immediately learn to appreciate as soon as you see
GDM pop up or navigate the menus? Can we state this in a way that makes
end-users appreciate it, and then not only appreciate it, but also adopt
Fedora instead of any other distribution?
I think you're exactly right. We need to communicate this particular
message more effectively: "Fedora leads the fight to make free software
better." *THAT* is the message, from where I sit.
--g
--
Greg DeKoenigsberg
Community Development Manager
Red Hat, Inc. :: 1-919-754-4255
"To whomsoever much hath been given...
...from him much shall be asked"
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