Free Software Developer Disease strikes again.
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| dinotrac Nov 04, 2012 1:14 PM EDT |
Developer emphasis in free software continues to be the embodiment of the classic line from Monk: "It's a blessing. And a curse." Say what you will about proprietary land, they are at least able to get developers to do stuff for the users instead of themselves. Tthat is the underlying purpose of paying people -- to motivate them to do things they would not otherwise do. The other thing about proprietary land -- though the track record is bumpy as hell -- is that they do at least have people trying to figure out what people will want. |
| tuxchick Nov 04, 2012 2:27 PM EDT |
That's a pretty good piece, considering it's The Register. Not one cuss word or weird slang! Two key comments:Quoting: GNOME is chasing users that are moving to devices GNOME doesn't work on - tablets and smart phones. The key to making any major FOSS software project a success is turning users into contributors, because there is simply no substitute for having enough people to provide regular sanity checks, and enough people to do the work. And for most projects, that is where the most barriers are. |
| cmost Nov 04, 2012 2:49 PM EDT |
@ dinotrac I think you're overgeneralizing. Many FOSS developers do so for myriad reasons that have nothing to do with receiving payment, or rather lack thereof, for their services. Some do it because they're passionate about computers or programming. Others simply do it because they enjoy being part of a larger community of developers who control projects themselves. Still others contribute their talent to FOSS because they know that by sharing a small part, they're making the larger whole better. Programmers help the project community and the community delivers the project. The problems start when the community decides what's best instead of the actual users of the project deliverable and since the programmers are also users, they either leave the project for one that's aligned with its users, fork the project or return to proprietary land. |
| Ridcully Nov 04, 2012 4:35 PM EDT |
@cmost.......I followed the quite reasonable comments you made and pretty much agree with you until you get to this last sentence:Quoting:The problems start when the community decides what's best instead of the actual users of the project deliverable and since the programmers are also users, they either leave the project for one that's aligned with its users, fork the project or return to proprietary land. For the life of me, I cannot understand what you mean in that sentence. Probably being superdense this morning, but the first half of it is very confusing. I'd appreciate a fuller explanation because I'd like to understand the point you are trying to make. |
| cmost Nov 04, 2012 5:26 PM EDT |
@ Ridcully I'm sorry; upon re-reading that sentence, even I'm confused by it! Haha. Please allow me to rephrase. What I intended to convey is that when a project community hijacks a project and begins either rejecting or ignoring user input (which can include users who are also programmers part of the project's development community) then those key contributors will switch to another similar project, fork the project that's been hijacked or go back to using a similar proprietary program. To give an example, when the Gnome community decided to go it alone with drastic, unpopular changes to the desktop paradigm, many users simply abandoned ship to KDE, XFCE, etc. Similarly, many Gnome contributors who were also unhappy with the decisions of a few, also jumped ship. Mint developers simply forked Gnome Shell to develop Cinnamon, which it thought more in line with what's its users wanted. Mint developers also joined forces with developers carrying on development of the abandoned Gnome 2.x desktop forming MATE. Canonical developed it's own solution, Unity. If Gnome wishes to survive, then its development community will have to change something to appease disgruntled users and developers and bring them back into the fold. |
| Ridcully Nov 04, 2012 6:24 PM EDT |
@cmost........I do apologise but I am afraid I nearly fractured with laughter over your first sentence above. I'm still grinning. However, thankyou for the very clear explanation. And I agree. The Gnome team really does seem to have shot itself in the foot, and sadly, it may already be too late, given the enormous backlash and the forked alternatives that are now present. I have just been discussing the situation with a friend of mine via emails and my thoughts are that of itself, Gnome's disappearance may not be entirely a bad thing. First, the enormous duplication of the Gnome and KDE interfaces was costly in time and money...Second, my understanding was that the "raison d'etre" for Gnome was the "non-GPL" nature of the Qt tool-kit (hope I have those terms right) and as far as I know, there are no longer any impediments to Qt in the FOSS world. In another sense though, the disappearance of Gnome as it was in version 2 is exceptionally sad. I never used it or "took to it", but Gnome2 had simplicity with good ability to modify the DE in the way you wanted it, and it was fast. It was far more "friendly" than the simpler DE's of LXDE and Xfce and my feeling was always that it was a cut-down version of KDE that gave faster results with less memory consumed. Probably wrong, but those were my perceptions. Anyway, we are back to "watch this space". Perhaps the Gnome team will realise the situation and return to what the users wanted......or they can be stubborn and keep going, but I think that will be even more destructive. |
| dinotrac Nov 04, 2012 8:10 PM EDT |
@cmost -- No over-generalization at all. You'll note my reference was to the specific ability of proprietary land to motivate people by paying them and to care enough about users to at least try to figure out what's going to sell (as that's where proprietary vendor get the money to motivate those developers). The blessing and curse of free software is that you get a lot of contributions by people who are very passionate or very curious or just wanting some street cred, and those people may or may not be giving much thought to the user community. When I say that, it's not in the sense that developers are intentionally throwing the user community a big "screw you" so much as a tendency to think that which I find cool must be cool to everybody else as well. Some projects do better than others, and some projects have people who are paid to achieve specific goals. |
| Steven_Rosenber Nov 04, 2012 10:28 PM EDT |
This is all good if you don't like GNOME 3. But if you do, it's kind of pointless. |
| Ridcully Nov 04, 2012 11:52 PM EDT |
Very valid point Steven_Rosenber.....and on that topic, do you have any figures, trends or otherwise of the numbers of people who actually do like Gnome 3. Sheer curiousity, but I'd very much like to know. |
| r_a_trip Nov 05, 2012 4:58 AM EDT |
What is meant by liking Gnome 3? The whole kit and kaboodle or can like also extend to parts? I like most of Gnome 3, but I can't stand Gnome Shell. So, while my "shell" is Cinnamon, am I still a Gnome 3 user? |
| Ridcully Nov 05, 2012 5:16 AM EDT |
You know, r_a_trip, one asks what one considers to be a simple question, and suddenly someone like you puts a whole new slant on it......I feel a headache coming on. :-) I guess I am after pure and simple Gnome 3 user figures.....no Cinnamons, Unity or anything........just Gnome 3 as the developers released it. |
| DiBosco Nov 05, 2012 5:33 AM EDT |
Quoting: That's a pretty good piece, considering it's The Register. Not one cuss word or weird slang! It's not weird slang, it's normal slang. The Register is a great website; just because it doesn't take itself too seriously doesn't mean it's not good. I love the fact that people are allowed to swear freely there, makes for a much more realistic and fun environment. Some of the terms people come up with there are mint! Considering it's The Register. Tut. |
| dinotrac Nov 05, 2012 12:30 PM EDT |
@DiBosco -- And while I'm glad they have found a style that suits them, I'm glad I don't work there. A few of us old folks kinda like a little decorum while we're working. Not so much that you can't head back to the common room for a little ping-pong or (Gasp!) a beer, but a little decorum. |
| tuxchick Nov 05, 2012 1:24 PM EDT |
I quit checking in regularly on El Reg after the thousandth repetition of 'fondle slab.' It was funny the first 999 times, then it got old. Cussing is sign of limited imagination and vocabulary. |
| caitlyn Nov 05, 2012 2:05 PM EDT |
Amen, tuxchick.Quoting:You'll note my reference was to the specific ability of proprietary land to motivate people by paying them and to care enough about users to at least try to figure out what's going to sell (as that's where proprietary vendor get the money to motivate those developers). The problem with this line of reasoning is that a solid majority, probably most, of the FOSS developers on the big projects are paid by companies that have an interest in what they're developing. GNOME is actually a good case in point. Take a look how many of the GNOME devs are employed by Red Hat and Novell. Those folks are paid just the way proprietary software developers are paid. Regarding the direction of the GNOME 3 desktop, I suspect those same companies had some say (probably a lot of say) in those decisions. |
| dinotrac Nov 05, 2012 4:21 PM EDT |
Quoting:though the track record is bumpy as h*** |
| DiBosco Nov 06, 2012 7:49 AM EDT |
Actually swearing is an incredibly effective way of making a point. It's the overuse of it that shows a lack of imagination, just like the overuse of any word in a piece of text. Plenty of people here use words like "heck", rather than words perceived to be stronger, which is exactly the same thing in terms of lack of imagination -it's just that parts of society deem that word to be more acceptable for one reason or another. Long live The Register's wonderfully irreverent and sarcastic style of reporting; it's an absolute joy to have a laugh while keeping up-to-date with the tech world and not worry about mummy slapping you down for the odd [supposedly] inappropriate word. :-) And before you have a go at me being hypocritical, I'm not saying lxer shouldn't have its own style too; just that you shouldn't look down on it [El Reg] because it's not your cup of tea. |
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