Mark Constable: > On Monday 01 August 2005 23:20, Kjetil Svalastog Matheussen > <k.s.matheussen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> > You make it sound like a one way street all about the developer(s). >> > A "project" cannot survive without users. If users do not use the >> > software the developers are sweating over then that software project >> > will go nowhere and die. Every bit as much as us users leach the >> > efforts of developers is the developers need us as users or else >> > their efforts will come to nothing... they also need to pay homage >> > to their userbase... or another project, that does so, will succeed >> > in the long term and their baby will not. >> >> Extremely provocating rubbush! > > I am talking about "projects" that both developers and users happen > to be associated with. I don't see what's provocative or in anyway > rubbishy about a statement like "a project cannot survive without > users". > > If you develop software for your own needs then great, if some other > people also happen to use it then power be to your software... but I > hardly see how that software compares to major core code that the > rest of us totaly rely on... like the kernel, ALSA/JACK, X/desktops. > >> In addtition to general generalisation, you make programmers seem like >> some mindless robots slaving for their users. Personally, I don't care >> very much whether my software is used. That does not matter. Its the fun >> of making new types of software, and that I need the software myself. If >> others like the software too, thats great!, but its normally not of very >> much importance for whether I keep developing or not. > > And so goes your project(s). I wasn't talking about the kind of project > where someone like yourself does not care if anyone else uses your > sofware... that is not the backbone of the larger and really important > major projects we all absolutely depend on. > > I'm talking about the survival, or not, of core projects that, if > successful, will be used by many MILLIONs of users in the next decade. > Some of the software we use today will become major international > institutions over the next 5 to 10 years... and I'm very sure the > current progeny that evolves and survives the next few years will be > the ones that are most end-user friendly. > Okey, with those clarifications, I can to a certain degree agree with you. But I will also add that your tone about users and developers where provocating, which led me to write what I wrote. Some peope are pure developers, but most of us use our own software as well, and even for core-projects, the reasons for devloping are probably quite diverse. --