Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1695 mails)

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2009-07-14 at 11:16 -0700, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> <snip>
> > But you run into a issue of scarce resources - someone would need to
> > define and *test* that category on an *ongoing* basis.  As a software
> > developer I can tell you that *ongoing testing* is the most expensive
> > [in resources] part of the entire process.  Seriously.  On projects I've
> > worked on I've vetoed many a otherwise good feature/idea because "who is
> > going to maintain it?"  Testing requires *lots* of time from very
> > [scarce] knowledgeable people.  
> But this is the crux of the entire argument.  Given this limited set of 
> resources, somewhere a group of developers have made a decision on how 
> to allocate those resources in the design of a product.  But there are 
> users (call them customers if you like) that are saying "we don't like 
> the product".  

I also said (which you didn't quote):
<quote>
A project can't go every-way,  again you have the scarce resources
issue.  Somebody has to make a decision, and that decision will possibly
make a good number of people unhappy.  But that is just how life is.
</quote>

> And they seem to be a vocal and persistent set of users 
> that have been with SuSE for a long time and are not trollers.  The 
> canonical open-source response is "well, open source is all about choice 
> and you can go and hack your distro all you want and put in whatever you 
> like".  

Yep.

> This is simply unrealistic for the vast, vast majority of users. 

You jumped from "vocal and persistent set of users" to "vast majority of
users".  There is no evidence the "vast majority of users" are unhappy.

>     The risk is then to drive people away from SuSE, and end up with a 
> distro that only the developers are using.  Is this acceptable?

The answer to "Is this acceptable?" is NULL.  Because your question is
an either-or fallacy [or "false dilemma"].  Either we give the "vocal
and persistent set of users" exactly what they want (to whatever degree
that is defined) or we have a project "only the developers are using"?
The question itself is void because that is not a realistic
representation of choice(s).  How about:  "openSUSE continues to provide
a distribution that not only satisfies, but is enjoyed by, many users?"

And *every* Open Source project with any significant user base has a
"vocal and persistent set of users".  That is a result of:
<quote>
A project can't go every-way,  again you have the scarce resources
issue.  Somebody has to make a decision, and that decision will possibly
make a good number of people unhappy.  But that is just how life is.
</quote>


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