On 06/08/2014 10:48 AM, Larry Stotler wrote:
On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 6:54 PM, Anton Aylward
wrote: Sadly too many developers respond "WONTFIX" since they don't see this as a valid bug.
This all comes back to how devs want to do things without considering the impact on the installed user base:
1. Xorg removing config files because it should "just work" & those of use with different monitors having to manually run xrandr on login to make the screens work properly(yes, I could write a script, but I shouldn't have to since the old way just worked once configured)
NOT! The change was to introduce an auto-configure that worked in ther 95% case. This was a great advance for those who previously hadn't been able to configure X because the configuration was too complex. The config file are still there if you want then, only now instead of one monolithic file there are individual files for each section. You only need them if you are going to override some part of the configuration. All the power is still there for the sophisticates and the format makes it easier for the newbies to become acquainted. The inpact on the user base was +ve in that it allowed many people to simply get it working with common recommended OTS hardware, hence making Linux more available for the Windows-but-curious and other Joe Sixpack types.
2. KDE4/Gnome3 being a completely new system over KDE3/Gnome2 & people being told to get over it. Which is why we now have TDE & Cinnamin/MATE.
Some things can only strech so far. The complaints about KDE4 - I can't comment on Gnome, I never used it - boiled down to people expecting a finished product ala Microsoft, SUN or IBM and being unwilling to participate in the spirit of open source development. The reality is that the chznge to KDE4 was less than the change from W/3 to W/97 or W/XP, less than the change from W/XP to W/7 or W/8. Yes they caused outcries too but the commonality between KDE3 and KDE4 was much greater than that between W/XP and W/8. And its not as if Linux is short of Window managers, whereas the poor Microsoft users don't get offered any alternatives. Its not that people were told "get over it" so much as they were told that this was a new development path and that they should work with it. I'm very glad I did and I'm very pleased with the results.
3. Firefox going to a new UI in v29, yet having ready to go extensions to revert it to the "old way".
You obviously don't get "experimentation" and 'customer trials'.
I could list so many more.
When you get right down to it, the majority of the FOSS community uses the software & are not programmers. We get told to learn how to program or get over it.
Sadly there are arrogant programmers like that, but not all are so. However if you spend your time badmouthing them and telling them their work is a pile of doggie-do-do then don't expect them to sympathise or cooperate with you. With a few exceptions I've found most are willing to work WITH you if you are polite and not strident and understand that they are trying their best to create and improve. Proper bug reporting and working through use cases is part of this. These people are volunteers. They are not paid to put up with personal abuse.
Sure, the devs contribute their time & code, but they don't consider how the changes will affect the people who use their software.
Oh, they do. They have a vision. But if you castigate them and their vision all it succeeds in doing is causing entrenchment. If all they hear is criticism and abuse, especially when its focused on their vision rather than their code, and KDE4 was a good example of this because it required a lot of development and 'evolutionary' steps to get there, then they are going to stop listening to you. When you do have something useful to say, they aren't going to hear it. And what is worse, many of the developers will learn not to listen to reasonable users who appreciate what they are doing ebcuase of people like you.
As you said "Out with the old, in with the new." That's what is important now adays. Why waste time just improving what we have when we can throw the baby out with the bathwater & have a new one?
It seems you didn't read that article. My quote was ironic. The old standard was flawed and limited and the use-cases had pushed it beyond its limits. The 'new' dealt with and supported the real world use-cases and regularized support for them. -- /"\ \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML Mail / \ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org