On Thursday 05 December 2013 15:20:01 Henne Vogelsang wrote:
Hey,
On 04.12.2013 22:49, Robert Schweikert wrote:
I will maintain my packages in the distribution if we have 1, 10, or 1,000,000 users. It's all the same to me. Further it is all the same to me if those users are of the "for a living" kind, or hobbyist, or school kids, poor or rich. I think I am not alone in this respect.
This is exactly why I think that we're not in some kind of "market". Market logic and assumptions do not apply to us and what we do.
We don't exchange currency for goods and services. We don't even barter. The opposite is true: The intangible asset of our own egos satisfaction and reputation among other hackers is what we strive for. This is an endless resource so competing for it doesn't happen.
We are also not competing for anything with other Free and Open Source distributions, the opposite is true: We collaborate with them for a common goal, even if we might disagree on the way to do it. We are a "great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches".
We do not direct our resources to maximize our "profit". The opposite is true: We're solving our own and our friends problems/challenges, often in the simplest way we can.
I think the basic assumption of all of this is wrong and we don't have to do anything except to continue to frame, foster, accompany and patronize the things the members of our community want to do. This is what has brought us here and this is what will carry us into the future.
I agree the whole market thinking is not terribly productive and certainly a bit condescending. That doesn't mean we can't step back and talk about improving stuff - most of the conversations about factory improvements are useful. And for that, it is also good to have some idea of what we want to do - I think Ludwig's mail has some very valid points: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2013-12/msg00349.html That is about fixing our development model, make it easier and more fun to contribute. Yeah, I know, that is what you were saying ;-) When it comes to more big-picture stuff, I am not an advocate of such huge, ambitious strategy ideas as they tend not to work (as was shown in the past and now, again). Actually there's Open Advice (the book by Lydia Pintscher) in which I wrote an essay arguing exactly that. AND explaining how one SHOULD do it... http://open-advice.org/ It is free, of course ;-)
Henne