On 02/05/2013 10:58 AM, Rui Nuno Capela wrote:
In other words, software on Linux is usually developer-driven, not
user-driven. And this constructs a totally different community and
attitude and method of communication. Linux, at its core, is an
operating system for developers, for people who want to write their own
stuff.
it just happens that i do eat my own dogfood, so maybe i count as
separate as a dev and as a user? :)
Both, but you're not your typical user. You've been developing your
excellent "dogfood" for years to match your taste preferences - which
may or may not really align with those of a non-developer. Or at least
with a regular user who hasn't had your dogfood before and doesn't have
your extensive experience with it to get them through the learning
process. Or a regular user who's coming from a comparable program that
simply does things differently.
Self-selection is a fundamental thing in open source. It's a fundamental
strength, and a fundamental weakness.
It's a strength in that motivated, passionate developers and users form
a community around a product, guiding its development and maintaining
everyone's motivation. Even helping fund things!
It's a fundamental weakness in that developers and users who don't like
the way a product does things or is being developed, self-select OUT by
choosing another product. They may even be subtly or not so subtly
encouraged to leave: "You don't like the way the program does things?
Then why don't you just go away and use something else?".
So - over time - a product's community comes to consist of people who
like the product, like how it works, think that's the way things should
work, complain when someone posts an idea that would change how things
are done, etc. (BTW, I'm one of that kind of community member.) So
whatever quirks the product began with are amplified, even become set in
stone, are angrily defended by community members when "outsiders" say it
makes no sense to do something in a way that may be completely,
inscrutably and seemingly-irrationally different from the way every
other similar program (or even common usability standard) does it.
(Yes, JPilot - just why DID you decide to use the common UI standard
ctrl-z UNDO key to bring up the dialog box for entering the user's Palm
OS password???? Is that really more useful than an UNDO function? I've
been using JPilot for ages, have never used a password on my Palm Pilot,
and I still hit ctrl-z expecting it to be UNDO!)
No offense intended, maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety. Newer
ain't always better - but the old ways aren't always best, either.
--
David
gnome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
authenticity, honesty, community
http://clanjones.org/david/
http://dancing-treefrog.deviantart.com/
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