Eero Tamminen wrote:
There are a couple of issues here regarding "hobby developers".Hi, Once again talking about the hobby developer... ext Jac Kersing wrote: 1. It's becoming clear that part of the problem is that software is being released as public release or even "stable beta" that is really very much alpha. If you're releasing software that is riddled with bugs (or simply insufficient functionality) to a wide audience then yes, you're going to get a lot of questions and complaints. The answer is to keep it quiet until it's ready for the average (clueless) end-user. 2. If it's just a hobby, why are you releasing your software to the public? If you're only doing it for yourself, then keep it to yourself. If you're doing it for others, then you have to accept the fact that they may find serious problems or find that it lacks functionality that is critically important to them. And yes, anyone who tries your software most certainly *is* doing you a favor, *especially* if they find a problem of any sort. You either want others to benefit from your work, or you don't. If you don't, then don't make it available. If you do, then every single person who tries it is spreading the word. If the software works well and meets their needs, then they'll spread the word and the user base will grow. If the software has problems or significant limitations, but they were well treated and got the help they needed, then they will still spread positive word and the user base will grow. If they ask a question or present an account of a problem and get treated poorly (or ignored), they will either not tell anybody else about it or will spread negative word, and the user base will grow very little or not at all and your feedback will dry up. It's up to you. As I've made it abundantly clear, Linux is still a long way from meeting all my needs. And yet, here I am, doing my best to do everything possible within Linux. It is *not* easy. In fact is is very hard. If I wanted easy, I would just stick with Windows, put more money in Micro$oft's - and other closed-source companies' - pockets, and never have the inconvenience of booting into another OS or have a very significant amount of hard drive space taken up by that other OS. Sure, there would be the occasional crash or problem, but in general things in Windows just work. So why am I spending way too much of my time learning and dealing with the problems and inadequacies of Linux? Because I believe in the concept, and I believe in the goals. I'm trying to get to the point where I can evangelize others to the cause. I want to do whatever I can, and am stretching my limited skills and learning new things every day, in order to further the cause in any way that I can. Not because it's easy, convenient or makes my life any easier. Maybe someday I'll reach the point of being a developer myself, and maybe a won't. But one thing I will never forget is what it's like to be on this side of the coin. The bottom line is that yes, I most certainly *am* doing you a favor by spending my time with this, even if I run out of patience sometimes or ask a dumb question from time to time. And we're really on the same side, even if you can't see it. Mark |
_______________________________________________ maemo-users mailing list maemo-users@xxxxxxxxx https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users
