On Tuesday 08 December 2009, Kevin Krammer wrote:
> On Tuesday, 2009-12-08, Thierry de Coulon wrote:
> > I think I'm going to take a look at non free software because if OSS devs
> > develop only for themselves, maybe I have more luck with devs that work
> > for their users...
>
> I think you've got that one backwards.
> FOSS developers work for everyone including themselves, proprietary
> developers mostly for work themselves (maybe a bit for each other in case
> the other one's deadline is getting too close).
>
> Cheers,
> Kevin
That was NOT my point. When I discovered that KDE 4 was not working the way I
like, I thought I come here and say it, and maybe someone listens and
implements what I would like. Of course I was ready to read that "we are
sorry, but for this or that reason we can't / don't want to implement this".
But what I got for an answer (and I see others continue to get the same,
although I don't know if this answer come from developers or from people
speaking "for them", officially or not) is: it is so, change your way of
using your computer or go look some other place, you did not pay for your
software so how dare you come and criticise?
I notice that, at least at the user Interface level (I don't use the OS
myself) Microsoft did listen to the users who did not like Vista (and hence
also did not buy it or install it). For years, Microsoft has implemented the
same ideas from version to version, and forcing the users to follow by
removing customisation options when the users did not do things the way MS
wanted. Vista was a flop. Microsoft could have waited, completely stopped XP,
and on the long run all users would have had to get Vista. But they listened
to their users and Windows 7 has a clean user interface that clearly corrects
flaws of the Vista interface.
So what some people on this list have been saying is: we love KDE, we have
been using it for 10 years, but we don't agree with the new concept, so far
that we fear we have no other choice but to abandon KDE if it continues this
way. We (at least I) had been expecting either concern from the devs, or at
least some "sorry, but we can explain why we have to go this way" answer -
instead we get some sort of "if you don't say that KDE 4 is the greatest then
you are against us and you'd better go some other place" and "you don't pay
for it, so be glad you get it at all and shut up" answers....
So tu sum up my point:
- producing software makes little sens if no one uses it
- if you produce commercial software, and no one uses it, you don't get money,
so you have to listen to your users if they are unsatisfied.
- if you produce "free" software, and don't get money from it, you can ignore
unhappy users because they don't pay for it so it makes no change for you if
they don't use it.
Of course this is a caricature, but it is sort of how I feel the KDE devs
are "represented" on this list.
Cheers,
Thierry
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