Sort-of agree 100%
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| AnonymousCoward Jun 02, 2005 5:23 PM EDT |
No, that's not a contradiction. I agree 100% that there needs to be more effort spent on support etc. I don't agree that it needs to be diverted from our current crop of developers. There are many people in the FOSS community who don't have 'leet coding skills, and don't have a great purpose in their lives. If you're one of them, please consider pack-and-filling behind the developers so that their work can actually be delivered in a corporate environment. I spoke yesterday to a local (Oz-wide) chain of stores about selling a $997 laptop for ca $947 with Linux instead, and they had two reasons for declining to: I don't propose being a free support group for all and sundry commercial vendors, but I do propose setting up support networks so that such vendors have a simple URL that they can point people to which will connect said people with local user groups, shops and consultants. The stores can be happy with the knowledge that they're pointing their customers at a much more useful resource than http://www.yourfavouritemonopoly.com and the user groups will grow and the others will do business and everyone at this end of the world will be happy. It's a nice theory, anyway. (-: |
| tuxchick Jun 02, 2005 5:30 PM EDT |
Does this Oz-wide chain support Windows users? Most retail vendors don't offer any support for PCs, or any of their product line; the manufacturer is responsible for support. |
| AnonymousCoward Jun 02, 2005 7:40 PM EDT |
tuxchick: A little. The chain in question will help them with any problems involving new equipment. Beyond that, they're on their own. However, the store also makes a direct profit from selling them MS-Windows, whereas they wouldn't do (or at least, not as much) if they installed Linux in order to reduce the price. I suppose I could put it to them that they leave the markup they got from windows in the price, just axe the cost, but the problem is really not the actual details, it's managers' fears about the actual details. |
| incinerator Jun 02, 2005 10:52 PM EDT |
The author has seemingly never used Free Software herself. If I discover a bug with some free software I use I can do a couple of things:
1.) Post to the forum/mailing list/wiki
2.) Report a bug in the project's bugtracking system
3.) Email the author(s) directly
4.) Log into IRC and do any of the above. Now to compare that with non-free software: 1.) Yes, you can do that. However, as nobody except the author has access to the source code, chances of getting help are much worse. 2.) I still have to see a sophisticated bug tracking website for a non-free software project. 3.) Who's that going to work with MS software? 4.) see any of the above. And no, I don't agree with that article. |
| chris Jun 03, 2005 6:30 AM EDT |
Incinerator, you left off some important other choices available to F/OSS 5) fix the bug myself (*) 6) hire someone else to fix the bug for me (*) * and perhaps send a patch to the author. It's the option to fix it myself or to hire anyone qualified to fix it for me that is so appealing about F/OSS. That means the author could be hit by a bus, abandon the software, or otherwise discontinue supporting it. That does not mean the software dies with them. The software will live on as long as someone is interested in it. |
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