Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-07 Thread Stephan Hermann
Hi Kevin,

Am Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:55:40 -0700
schrieb Kevin Fries [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

 
 On Thu, 2007-12-06 at 12:03 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
  I think you misunderstand my point.
 
 No I got it.  And I think that that thinking is wrong and dangerous to
 Linux in general, and Ubuntu in specific.
 
 snip
 
  My concern is the idea that because a user said they want it is a
  meaninful metric in a largely volunteer project.  In Free software
  projects, the meaningful metric for what gets done is what the
  people doing the work think needs doing (and this applies to all
  types of work, not just development, in the project).  Volunteers
  can't be ordered.  They have to be convinced.
 
 If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
 elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
 ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
 understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
 Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.

The World is split into two groups:

1. OpenSource Developer who are working in companies like Novell,
Canonical, RedHat, Sun etc. They are paid to work 8 or more hours on
dealing with the users needs.
2. Volunteers, who are working in other businesses, have other
priorities. Daily Work, Family, Friends, ..., OpenSource Development.

So, there is a difference, and Scott is totally right, when he says,
Volunteers needs to be convinced. 

Users != Customers. Customers are companies and people, who are buying
Support Contracts. Those Customers are handled by the First Group.
But Ricky Smith, who doesn't pay a penny, but wants something, is not
a customer, but someone who could convince me or Scott to fix or
prepare software for him. (Which I wouldn't do, honestly) 


 Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
 your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
 needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list
 of features that need to be implemented.

So, Kevin, Pay For It. You can send us money, for doing work on what
you want. Price per Hour starts at 150 Euros (without local tax).
Private People like Scott or I are not in this Customer Business,
that's Canonical (for Ubuntu) or other paid people in other OpenSource
Companies.
 
 
 Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.

It's not our business, it's our hobby, that's the difference between
let's say Alan Cox (who is working for hard bucks on the Kernel) and
Ricky Smith, who is sending in kernel patches, because he is
interessted to fix stuff and because it's his hobby.  

 
 If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your
 priority list, your competition will.

As I said, pay us then :)

 
 Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
 business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
 customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
 something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many
 hours providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather
 not.  Its not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the
 project.

Ubuntu is just pool/main and pool/restricted which is mostly maintained
by Canonical from paid developers. Which is good. 
pool/universe and pool/multiverse is community driven. Fixed,
Maintained and handled by people who are not being paid by any company
to do this work. 

 
 Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
 door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We
 as the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the
 customer so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true
 advantage we have over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off
 their customer to do what is in their best interest (Can we say
 Windows Genuine Advantage, or Digital Rights Management... I knew we
 could).

Well, it's all about egos, developers are really difficult people
sometimes. Without an ego you can't kick someones ass, to work on
things. That's business. NO Ego, no social competence, no ass in your
pants, you lose. That's why opensource is special, and not only
opensource. That's why Jono wrote last time about RockStars for
OpenSource...you need stars, you need assholes.

 
 You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
 place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
 really helping?

Well, you really got the point. OpenSource is Business, Business means
being paid, so if you want something, please pay us people, who are
dealing with software in our sparetime. Without money, no developer can
live, but TBH, if this would be the usual case, most of the developers
would only work for only about 8 hours on their software, and then they
are leaving the office, going home to their families...and then you
have, yes, the MS way.

Result: The OpenSource Business Model is a mixture of 

[Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Blaise Alleyne
Onno Benschop wrote:

 On 04/12/07 01:28, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
   
 I think allowing the developers of the distribution, those who have a
 real stake in the success of the software in its entirety, to decide
 where to focus their efforts is superior to allowing the mob to decide
 what's important.  I also think that using straw-man arguments to make
 your point is a mistake.
 

 The end-user has just as much stake in the success of the software in
 its entirety as a developer.

True, but there's the additional question - is this the appropriate
place for that sort of discussion? In other words, sure, the developers
need a place to discuss things free from the mob, but the mob also
needs to be able to participate and voice their concerns/approval.

But which is ubuntu-devel-discuss supposed to be for?

According to the list description [1], it does seem to be the appropriate 
forum for users to get in touch with developers. Though it doesn't appear 
to be an appropriate place to try and draw attention to bugs on Launchpad.
If that's the case, maybe it should be stated more clearly.

[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-devel-discuss


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Re: [Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Sarah Hobbs
Blaise Alleyne wrote:
 True, but there's the additional question - is this the appropriate
 place for that sort of discussion? In other words, sure, the developers
 need a place to discuss things free from the mob, but the mob also
 needs to be able to participate and voice their concerns/approval.
 
 But which is ubuntu-devel-discuss supposed to be for?
 
 According to the list description [1], it does seem to be the appropriate 
 forum for users to get in touch with developers. Though it doesn't appear 
 to be an appropriate place to try and draw attention to bugs on Launchpad.
 If that's the case, maybe it should be stated more clearly.
 
 [1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-devel-discuss
 
 

According to [2], the point of contact for users to get in touch with 
developers is ubuntu-devel-discuss.  For discussions between developers, 
away from the mob, there is [EMAIL PROTECTED]

That being said, there are a number of developers who choose not to read 
this list, for various reasons.

Hobbsee

[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelModeration

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Kevin Fries
On Wed, 2007-12-05 at 22:13 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
 For those of us who are volunteers (most of us), the compromise is
 someone has to convince me it's worth my time to bother.  So I'd say
 the other way around.  The users who want volunteers to actually do
 free work for them need to be convincing why I should be bothered
 (hint: threatening to switch back to Windows doesn't motivate me at
 all).

If you need motivation from external sources, then maybe you are
misdirecting your efforts.  I am not trying to be mean here, but I use
and advocate Linux for many reasons.  Nobody has to motivate me to do
so.  I do so because I believe in the platform, and I want it to
succeed.  I want it to succeed for selfish as well as altruistic
reasons.  Many unpaid hours are spent helping someone get started, not
because I need to be convinced to do so.  I do so because I want Ubuntu
to succeed, I want Linux to succeed.  And I am not alone.  Many of the
local Colorado Local Group, are looking for ways to provide help desks
to noobs, to get more CDs out, or even get cards out pointing the
uninitiated to online resources.  None of them are paid either.  Nor do
any of them need to be convinced to do so.  They do so for the same
reason I do... Because it is what is needed to be done.

There seems to be this growing trend in the Ubuntu community lately, and
I am pretty sure that it is an all bad thing.  The developers, not all
but a growing number, seem to think Ubuntu is their baby.  The sweat of
their brow, and therefore, only successful because of what they do.
While I will be the first to say that these voices are still the great
minority, they are getting louder.  And diminish the fantastic work done
by so many.

There are many ways to contribute to a project such as Ubuntu.  I have
offered programming skills, and was treated quite rudely buy certain
members of the programming community.  They were extremely territorial
and condescending towards my efforts.  I have since decided to focus my
efforts elsewhere.

The comments above are exactly the attitude we need to guard against.
In my current day job, I design state of the art hand-held computerized
devices.  Because of my advocacy here, fewer and fewer of those machines
are being considered for Windows Mobile.  Because of my efforts here,
Windows Mobile is no longer mentioned when new projects come up.  That
takes my faith in the project, and the developers ability to deliver
that project.  Without the developers, my faith is misplaced.  Without
my advocacy, the developers efforts are purely academic.  I am no more,
or no less important than the developer, and I expect to be treated with
the same respect.  Not looked down upon so some developer can find
motivation.

In addition to my day job, I am getting a business off the ground.  This
business is designed to bring real, solid, Linux based networking
solutions to the small and medium-small based business.  A market
segment that Linux has not had much success with in the past, and
Microsoft is pandering to.  Bringing Linux to a brand new market segment
is not easy.  However, I think by doing so, I can build a successful
business, allow small businesses to better compete, and advance the
Linux and Ubuntu cause.  But I do not degrade the efforts of others to
justify why I do this.  Eau contraire mon frer, I praise them.  For if
it was not for all that they do, I could not concentrate on resolving
the businesses issues.

I know that not everybody on this board is American, but one thing that
every American child learns in history class is in regards to the
American Civil War.  The north finally prevailed with a tactic of divide
and conquer.  We learn the slogan United we stand, divided we fall
quoted by Thomas Jefferson (attributed as far back as Aesop).  And
Abraham Lincoln's paraphrase of that statement A house divided against
itself cannot stand (one of the great speeches of all time).  Ubuntu is
strong when we all listen to each other, give each other respect, and
stop trying to claim that my problems are more important than your
problems.  EVERYONE, end user, advocate, consultant, developer, or even
the businessperson that uses Linux for his/her operating system of
choice, is in this together.  Or else, we can tear each other apart.

It is time to come together, shut our mouths, and listen to the other
sides.  It is time to do this so that all of our efforts can be
maximized, and focused on the common good.  It time to stop using the
word me (also meant in the metamorphic sense such as end user, or
developer) and start using the word us.

Thats just my $0.02

-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Scott Kitterman
On Thursday 06 December 2007 11:36, Kevin Fries wrote:
 On Wed, 2007-12-05 at 22:13 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
  For those of us who are volunteers (most of us), the compromise is
  someone has to convince me it's worth my time to bother.  So I'd say
  the other way around.  The users who want volunteers to actually do
  free work for them need to be convincing why I should be bothered
  (hint: threatening to switch back to Windows doesn't motivate me at
  all).

 If you need motivation from external sources, then maybe you are
 misdirecting your efforts.  I am not trying to be mean here, but I use
 and advocate Linux for many reasons.  Nobody has to motivate me to do
 so.  I do so because I believe in the platform, and I want it to
 succeed.  I want it to succeed for selfish as well as altruistic
 reasons.  Many unpaid hours are spent helping someone get started, not
 because I need to be convinced to do so.  I do so because I want Ubuntu
 to succeed, I want Linux to succeed.  And I am not alone.  Many of the
 local Colorado Local Group, are looking for ways to provide help desks
 to noobs, to get more CDs out, or even get cards out pointing the
 uninitiated to online resources.  None of them are paid either.  Nor do
 any of them need to be convinced to do so.  They do so for the same
 reason I do... Because it is what is needed to be done.

 There seems to be this growing trend in the Ubuntu community lately, and
 I am pretty sure that it is an all bad thing.  The developers, not all
 but a growing number, seem to think Ubuntu is their baby.  The sweat of
 their brow, and therefore, only successful because of what they do.
 While I will be the first to say that these voices are still the great
 minority, they are getting louder.  And diminish the fantastic work done
 by so many.

I think you misunderstand my point.

I don't need external motivation to work on Linux.  I have my own for my own 
reasons.  My point is that I have limited time for development work and that 
if someone else wants me to spend that time on what they perceive as a 
problem, they need to convince me it's a worthwhile investment of my time 
(compared to what I would have otherwise done).

As you said, there are many ways to contribute and they are all needed.  

My concern is the idea that because a user said they want it is a meaninful 
metric in a largely volunteer project.  In Free software projects, the 
meaningful metric for what gets done is what the people doing the work think 
needs doing (and this applies to all types of work, not just development, in 
the project).  Volunteers can't be ordered.  They have to be convinced.

Scott K

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Kevin Fries

On Thu, 2007-12-06 at 12:03 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
 I think you misunderstand my point.

No I got it.  And I think that that thinking is wrong and dangerous to
Linux in general, and Ubuntu in specific.

snip

 My concern is the idea that because a user said they want it is a meaninful 
 metric in a largely volunteer project.  In Free software projects, the 
 meaningful metric for what gets done is what the people doing the work think 
 needs doing (and this applies to all types of work, not just development, in 
 the project).  Volunteers can't be ordered.  They have to be convinced.

If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.

Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list of
features that need to be implemented.

Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.

If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your priority
list, your competition will.

Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many hours
providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather not.  Its
not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the project.

Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We as
the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the customer
so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true advantage we have
over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off their customer to do
what is in their best interest (Can we say Windows Genuine Advantage, or
Digital Rights Management... I knew we could).

You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
really helping?

-- 
Kevin Fries
Senior Linux Engineer
Computer and Communications Technology, Inc
A Division of Japan Communications Inc.

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Cory K.
Kevin Fries wrote:
 You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
 place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
 really helping?

*IF* I were paid I would agree. What it comes down to with many of us is
we find a niche we care about and work on that. That work benefits users
of those packages.

What this touches on for me is my long-time feeling that for Ubuntu to
continue to be sustainable many more of us need to be paid
maintainers/developers. There's a list of at least 10 people I know that
should be paid to maintain Universe. Until that or something like it
happens Kevin, you simple can't demand the types of things you suggest
from people.

Also this is a conversation (like many) that just doesn't work on a ML.


-Cory \m/ (Ubuntu Studio lead)

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Patrick
There are some really strong arguments being put forth in this thread. I 
think I can understand how all the participates feel.

I think there is a developer-user disconnect and I tried to touch on 
this in my long winded best foot forward thread. That being said I 
have contributed absolutely nothing and I am in no position to complain. 
Perhaps the problem here is that people should get paid and if they are 
getting paid they should listen more closely to what the end user needs.

I don't have a lot of money. I just have a small business selling used 
lab instruments but I have lots of opportunities on the horizon. However 
I know there is a vast financial opportunity in front of me that I 
cannot capitalize on fast enough. There are millions of dollars to be 
made in instrument control software. I am so short on time with basic 
survival stuff that I cannot reach my goal.

Would anyone be interested in creating an Ubuntu entrepreneur list??

If we could help each other out maybe we could actually make money and 
pay people to make the modifications we want.

Just a thought-Patrick

Cory K. wrote:
 Kevin Fries wrote:
   
 You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
 place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
 really helping?
 

 *IF* I were paid I would agree. What it comes down to with many of us is
 we find a niche we care about and work on that. That work benefits users
 of those packages.

 What this touches on for me is my long-time feeling that for Ubuntu to
 continue to be sustainable many more of us need to be paid
 maintainers/developers. There's a list of at least 10 people I know that
 should be paid to maintain Universe. Until that or something like it
 happens Kevin, you simple can't demand the types of things you suggest
 from people.

 Also this is a conversation (like many) that just doesn't work on a ML.


 -Cory \m/ (Ubuntu Studio lead)

   


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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-06 Thread Neal McBurnett
On Thu, Dec 06, 2007 at 11:55:40AM -0700, Kevin Fries wrote:
 
 On Thu, 2007-12-06 at 12:03 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
  I think you misunderstand my point.
 
 No I got it.  And I think that that thinking is wrong and dangerous to
 Linux in general, and Ubuntu in specific.

Kevin - howdy!  I know you're doing cool stuff for Ubuntu and the
market, and you bring some good business perspectives to Ubuntu as a
product.  And I want Ubuntu to be a great product!  But Ubuntu is more
than that.  Please recognize that there are many different sorts of
people involved in Ubuntu, and respect everyone's right to do what
they feel called to do.  Scott speaks for many of us who are not paid.
In fact seminal essays on Free Software sociology have demonstrated
that this is not an uncommon position - the old scratching an itch
motivation.

Telling people who you're not paying what to do using inflamatory
language is just not very helpful IMHO :-)

  My concern is the idea that because a user said they want it is
  a meaninful metric in a largely volunteer project.  In Free
  software projects, the meaningful metric for what gets done is
  what the people doing the work think needs doing (and this applies
  to all types of work, not just development, in the project).
  Volunteers can't be ordered.  They have to be convinced.
 
 If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
 elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
 ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
 understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
 Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.

You can indeed pay someone to do work related to Ubuntu, just like in
the commercial software world.  You can pay Canonical, or another
Ubuntu support firm, or folks that do upstream development, or vendors
that sell software or hardware that runs on Ubuntu.  And then you get
to specify what you'll pay for.

But Ubuntu is MORE than a commercial project.  It is also a rich,
diverse community of contributors.  Some developers, some writers some
bug triagers, etc etc.  They contribute in ways that are very
different from the way the business world works.  And we benefit in
wonderful and unexpected ways from the diversity of their motivations.

I agree that excellent attention to customers is hugely important to
bug #1.  But [gasp] not everyone is doing this because of bug #1.
Some are just having fun, and still contributing in excellent ways.
Free software projects flourish when everyone is respected for how
they want to contribute.

 Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
 your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
 needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list of
 features that need to be implemented.
 
 Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.
 
 If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your priority
 list, your competition will.

For the folks that are paid, right on.  For the volunteers - maybe
that isn't what floats their boat.  Let them choose how to contribute.
Remember, they're letting YOU choose how to leverage the result of
their work, after all.  That is part of the magic of free software.

 Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
 business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
 customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
 something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many hours
 providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather not.  Its
 not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the project.
 
 Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
 door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We as
 the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the customer
 so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true advantage we have
 over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off their customer to do
 what is in their best interest (Can we say Windows Genuine Advantage, or
 Digital Rights Management... I knew we could).

Right on about checking egos at the door.  And I think ego is all
about telling someone else how to do something.  So I delight in your
energy and way of contributing to the Ubuntu ecosystem.  But recognize
that there is more than one way, and that is to our benefit, and
please don't project your views onto others.

 You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
 place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
 really helping?

This conversation started off (in October!) with a non-developer
trying to find out if a post to the list about a favorite bug was
appropriate.  Unfortunately we've now regressed into a non-so-pretty
internal argument.  What an inappropriate waste!!

In summary I think we will make a lot more progress if we recognize
there are many ways 

[Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Kevin Fries
This was sent to me personally, and it has comments directed to others
in the group... Therefore, I assume it was meant for the group at large.

Kevin Fries
 Forwarded Message 
From: Richard A. Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince
crash)
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 13:54:45 -0600

On Thursday 06 December 2007, Kevin Fries wrote:
[...]
| If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
| elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
| ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
| understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
| Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.
|
| Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
| your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
| needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list of
| features that need to be implemented.

I couldn't agree with you more!

| Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.

Actually, this wouldn't be Rule #1, but it is pretty much the Golden Rule of 
Business. Mark Cuban said it best a few years back, Treat your customers 
like they own you, because they do. The hard part with this though in our 
little neck of the woods is that all of us are also customers, so it can get 
confusing.

| If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your priority
| list, your competition will.

And they are (ie. PCLinuxOS, Fedora).

| Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
| business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
| customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
| something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many hours
| providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather not.  Its
| not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the project.

It was all fine and dandy until this paragraph. This is the one thing that 
really could irk a volunteer to such a project. I have been around this 
community for a couple of years now and talking to some past developers and 
contributors, the one thing that was common was that we are working for free 
while they are making money from our work. I look at it like this..Kubuntu 
is giving me more than I could ever give it. How?

1) I have a totally free operating system
2) I don't have to worry about all the other things I would have to with that 
other OS
3) The development community allows me to participate in which I get to learn 
the ins-and-outs of what really goes on (after a while, this is a nice CV 
bullet point)
4) The friends I have made in the process are totally worth every minute I 
have put in.

| Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
| door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We as
| the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the customer
| so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true advantage we have
| over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off their customer to do
| what is in their best interest (Can we say Windows Genuine Advantage, or
| Digital Rights Management... I knew we could).

I am 50/50 on this paragraph. I wholeheartedly believe there should be 
the checking the ego at the door, however a little bit of ego never hurt 
anybody. For instance, look at Microsoft. They have the biggest ego of all, 
and they have yet to really fail at what they do. Going on with Microsoft, 
they do indeed listen to their customers, just because we don't see it simply 
because we are not their customers, doesn't mean they don't. If they didn't 
listen, would they really be as big as they are? I mean Apple and other 
operating systems have been around just as long. Imagine if the Linux 
community would have really listened to the complaints in the 90s, I think we 
would then be further than we are today. In our eyes, yes we do have a true 
advantage over Microsoft, but to the billions of Microsoft users out there, 
they laugh at that advantage.

| You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
| place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
| really helping?

Very true, but one thing I have noticed from doing so is this:

1) Linux isn't gaining the ground with proprietary vendors. Why? because most 
distros have listened totally to the customer and have provided them with the 
proprietary solutions. This isn't helping in my opinion. And the one thing 
that really sucks with these proprietary solutions, we can't help/support the 
users when problems occur. The only thing we can do is say oh well, that is 
what you get when using proprietary stuff, we can't help you, ask insert 
proprietary mfr here.

The great thing about Linux is its scalability. It can pretty much be adapted 
to most environments

Re: [Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Todd Deshane
Hi All,

I think this thread has gotten way off topic. Can somebody in charge
flag this thread as a dead horse [1] ?

I think there is some good discussion going on, but those discussions
should be taken to new, fresh threads.

I do think that in order to post to lists intended for developers to
read you should follow some of the guidelines in articles such as [2],
do some research and show that you can at least think clearly. (I
think I should have followed these rules better before posting... I
don't even know if the question was really answered anyway, other than
pointing at the guidelines, which I did read before posting at least.)

I don't really think this thread should continue as it is.

Let the developers and moderators get back to real work.

Thanks,
Todd

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beating_a_dead_horse
[2] http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Dec 6, 2007 4:05 PM, Kevin Fries [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 This was sent to me personally, and it has comments directed to others
 in the group... Therefore, I assume it was meant for the group at large.

 Kevin Fries
  Forwarded Message 
 From: Richard A. Johnson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince
 crash)
 Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 13:54:45 -0600

 On Thursday 06 December 2007, Kevin Fries wrote:
 [...]
 | If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
 | elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
 | ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
 | understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
 | Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.
 |
 | Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
 | your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
 | needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list of
 | features that need to be implemented.

 I couldn't agree with you more!

 | Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.

 Actually, this wouldn't be Rule #1, but it is pretty much the Golden Rule of
 Business. Mark Cuban said it best a few years back, Treat your customers
 like they own you, because they do. The hard part with this though in our
 little neck of the woods is that all of us are also customers, so it can get
 confusing.

 | If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your priority
 | list, your competition will.

 And they are (ie. PCLinuxOS, Fedora).

 | Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
 | business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
 | customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
 | something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many hours
 | providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather not.  Its
 | not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the project.

 It was all fine and dandy until this paragraph. This is the one thing that
 really could irk a volunteer to such a project. I have been around this
 community for a couple of years now and talking to some past developers and
 contributors, the one thing that was common was that we are working for free
 while they are making money from our work. I look at it like this..Kubuntu
 is giving me more than I could ever give it. How?

 1) I have a totally free operating system
 2) I don't have to worry about all the other things I would have to with that
 other OS
 3) The development community allows me to participate in which I get to learn
 the ins-and-outs of what really goes on (after a while, this is a nice CV
 bullet point)
 4) The friends I have made in the process are totally worth every minute I
 have put in.

 | Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
 | door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We as
 | the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the customer
 | so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true advantage we have
 | over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off their customer to do
 | what is in their best interest (Can we say Windows Genuine Advantage, or
 | Digital Rights Management... I knew we could).

 I am 50/50 on this paragraph. I wholeheartedly believe there should be
 the checking the ego at the door, however a little bit of ego never hurt
 anybody. For instance, look at Microsoft. They have the biggest ego of all,
 and they have yet to really fail at what they do. Going on with Microsoft,
 they do indeed listen to their customers, just because we don't see it simply
 because we are not their customers, doesn't mean they don't. If they didn't
 listen, would they really be as big as they are? I mean Apple and other
 operating systems have been around just as long. Imagine if the Linux
 community would have really listened to the complaints in the 90s, I think we
 would

Re: [Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Richard A. Johnson
On Thursday 06 December 2007, Kevin Fries wrote:
| This was sent to me personally, and it has comments directed to others
| in the group... Therefore, I assume it was meant for the group at large.

Thanks Kevin, sorry about that. I must have hit the wrong reply button.

-- 
Richard A. Johnson
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
GPG Key: 0x2E2C0124


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Re: [Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Richard A. Johnson
RESENDING MY ORIGINAL POST TO THE LIST. This way Kevin doesn't blasted because 
of my comments :)

On Thursday 06 December 2007, Kevin Fries wrote:
[...]
| If I don't get my steak the way I ordered it.  I buy my steak from
| elsewhere.  Ubuntu with no users, is not anything but an exercise in
| ego.  What the customer wants is the only real metric.  You need to
| understand that as a developer, and I live with that every day as a
| Consultant, Designer, and Implementer.
|
| Which of those priorities you wish to work on, however, is completely
| your own decision.  But the customer MUST set the priorities of what
| needs done in the bigger picture. And, the customer MUST set the list of
| features that need to be implemented.

I couldn't agree with you more!

| Rule #1 of Business: Its not about you.

Actually, this wouldn't be Rule #1, but it is pretty much the Golden Rule of 
Business. Mark Cuban said it best a few years back, Treat your customers 
like they own you, because they do. The hard part with this though in our 
little neck of the woods is that all of us are also customers, so it can get 
confusing.

| If you do not make your customers wishes and desires #1 on your priority
| list, your competition will.

And they are (ie. PCLinuxOS, Fedora).

| Lets not forget, Ubuntu is a business product, distributed by a real
| business.  Therefore, its not about you... or me.  Its about the
| customer.  Making the customer feel like they have to talk you into
| something, is just not good business.  This is why I spend so many hours
| providing help to ANYONE who asks.  Even people I would rather not.  Its
| not about me, its about Ubuntu, and what is best for the project.

It was all fine and dandy until this paragraph. This is the one thing that 
really could irk a volunteer to such a project. I have been around this 
community for a couple of years now and talking to some past developers and 
contributors, the one thing that was common was that we are working for free 
while they are making money from our work. I look at it like this..Kubuntu 
is giving me more than I could ever give it. How?

1) I have a totally free operating system
2) I don't have to worry about all the other things I would have to with that 
other OS
3) The development community allows me to participate in which I get to learn 
the ins-and-outs of what really goes on (after a while, this is a nice CV 
bullet point)
4) The friends I have made in the process are totally worth every minute I 
have put in.

| Even more so in an all volunteer endeavor, egos must be checked at the
| door.  Developer's egos, designer's egos, and consultant's egos.  We as
| the people trying to make this a success, need to listen to the customer
| so that there will be more of them.  Its the one true advantage we have
| over Microsoft which is notorious for blowing off their customer to do
| what is in their best interest (Can we say Windows Genuine Advantage, or
| Digital Rights Management... I knew we could).

I am 50/50 on this paragraph. I wholeheartedly believe there should be 
the checking the ego at the door, however a little bit of ego never hurt 
anybody. For instance, look at Microsoft. They have the biggest ego of all, 
and they have yet to really fail at what they do. Going on with Microsoft, 
they do indeed listen to their customers, just because we don't see it simply 
because we are not their customers, doesn't mean they don't. If they didn't 
listen, would they really be as big as they are? I mean Apple and other 
operating systems have been around just as long. Imagine if the Linux 
community would have really listened to the complaints in the 90s, I think we 
would then be further than we are today. In our eyes, yes we do have a true 
advantage over Microsoft, but to the billions of Microsoft users out there, 
they laugh at that advantage.

| You allow the customers wishes to be the only real metric because you
| place Ubuntu and Linux's needs before your own.  Otherwise, are you
| really helping?

Very true, but one thing I have noticed from doing so is this:

1) Linux isn't gaining the ground with proprietary vendors. Why? because most 
distros have listened totally to the customer and have provided them with the 
proprietary solutions. This isn't helping in my opinion. And the one thing 
that really sucks with these proprietary solutions, we can't help/support the 
users when problems occur. The only thing we can do is say oh well, that is 
what you get when using proprietary stuff, we can't help you, ask insert 
proprietary mfr here.

The great thing about Linux is its scalability. It can pretty much be adapted 
to most environments. Providing proprietary solutions to the end user isn't 
doing anything for the cause, and is actually making us look like another 
Microsoft. We are starting to provide some of the same proprietary solutions 
(mainly drivers and codecs) to make the customer happy, and by doing this the 
majority of distro 

Re: [Fwd: Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)]

2007-12-06 Thread Scott Kitterman
On Thursday 06 December 2007 16:58, Richard A. Johnson wrote:

 Scott, I do have a problem with the document you linked to about asking
 smart questions. Most of the answers I have seen in there are stupid
 answers or stupid solutions. I was always raised with the idea that there
 isn't a such thing as a stupid question, and I believe that. Just because
 most of us know to Google this or that, or know how to find solutions, that
 doesn't mean that every Tom, Dick, and Harry does. I have a professor who
 has multiple degrees (Bachelors (couple of them), Masters (up there with
 those too), and PhDs), yet he asks his students for help researching
 information online because he isn't as savvy as some of the students, that
 doesn't make any of his questions stupid. I say burn that smart questions
 document, as it is obviously from the 90s with the STFW and RTFM type
 assessments. Its a miracle that the community has survived through all of
 that stuff and not driven more people away.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html is probably poorly titled.  
His definition of smart is questions that geeks will be interested in 
answering.  It's not about smart or stupid questions, but getting people 
excited about helping you (this gets back to the how do you motivate 
volunteers question).

Some people are good at hand holding new people through their initial baby 
steps with Linux (or anything).  Others are not.  

I still do user support on #ubuntu-server and the ubuntu-server ML and while I 
don't tell people to STFW or RTFM, I do tend to ignore questions that would 
require me to do some research unless:

1.  They are interesting to me.
2.  I have some hint that the asker has at least tried to solve the problem 
themself first.

I'm long past thinking I can or should try to solve everyone's problems in the 
world, so I pick and choose.  That document is about getting people to choose 
your question to answer.

Scott K

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-05 Thread Andrew Pollock
On Dec 3, 2007 8:28 AM, Christofer C. Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 On Dec 2, 2007 3:10 PM, (``-_-´´) -- Fernando [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
  I agree that :
  On Tuesday 23 October 2007 05:25:56 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
   This causes people to make useless comments of the form This bug has
 X
   votes, why is it only Medium importance!, which causes more e-mail
   notifications and slows down the developers further.
 
  but still this is a Comunity project, or is it not?
  If what users and comunity desire is not the important for the
 project, then what is?

 I think allowing the developers of the distribution, those who have a
 real stake in the success of the software in its entirety, to decide
 where to focus their efforts is superior to allowing the mob to decide
 what's important.  I also think that using straw-man arguments to make
 your point is a mistake.


I disagree.

There needs to be some compromise between the developers and the mob,
presuming that the mob consists of end-users. The end-user decides how much
of a success the software is in its entirety. The developers need to keep
that in mind at all times.

regards

Andrew
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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-05 Thread Onno Benschop
On 04/12/07 01:28, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
 I think allowing the developers of the distribution, those who have a
 real stake in the success of the software in its entirety, to decide
 where to focus their efforts is superior to allowing the mob to decide
 what's important.  I also think that using straw-man arguments to make
 your point is a mistake.

The end-user has just as much stake in the success of the software in
its entirety as a developer.

Some may even argue that they have more stake in its success because
ultimately they're using the distribution as a tool to get their job done.

-- 
Onno Benschop

Connected via Optus B3 at S31°54'06 - E115°50'39 (Yokine, WA)
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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-05 Thread Scott Kitterman
On Wednesday 05 December 2007 20:59, Andrew Pollock wrote:
 On Dec 3, 2007 8:28 AM, Christofer C. Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 wrote:
  On Dec 2, 2007 3:10 PM, (``-_-´´) -- Fernando [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
  wrote:
   I agree that :
  
   On Tuesday 23 October 2007 05:25:56 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
This causes people to make useless comments of the form This bug has
 
  X
 
votes, why is it only Medium importance!, which causes more e-mail
notifications and slows down the developers further.
  
   but still this is a Comunity project, or is it not?
   If what users and comunity desire is not the important for the
 
  project, then what is?
 
  I think allowing the developers of the distribution, those who have a
  real stake in the success of the software in its entirety, to decide
  where to focus their efforts is superior to allowing the mob to decide
  what's important.  I also think that using straw-man arguments to make
  your point is a mistake.

 I disagree.

 There needs to be some compromise between the developers and the mob,
 presuming that the mob consists of end-users. The end-user decides how much
 of a success the software is in its entirety. The developers need to keep
 that in mind at all times.

For those of us who are volunteers (most of us), the compromise is someone has 
to convince me it's worth my time to bother.  So I'd say the other way 
around.  The users who want volunteers to actually do free work for them need 
to be convincing why I should be bothered (hint: threatening to switch back 
to Windows doesn't motivate me at all).

I think this is useful reading for those trying to get developers interested 
in their problem:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Scott K

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-03 Thread (``-_-´´) -- Fernando
I agree that :
On Tuesday 23 October 2007 05:25:56 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
 This causes people to make useless comments of the form This bug has X 
 votes, why is it only Medium importance!, which causes more e-mail 
 notifications and slows down the developers further.

but still this is a Comunity project, or is it not?
If what users and comunity desire is not the important for the project, then 
what is?

-- 
BUGabundo  :o)
(``-_-´´)   http://Ubuntu.BUGabundo.net
Linux user #443786GPG key 1024D/A1784EBB
My new micro-blog @ http://BUGabundo.net


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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-12-03 Thread Christofer C. Bell
On Dec 2, 2007 3:10 PM, (``-_-´´) -- Fernando [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I agree that :
 On Tuesday 23 October 2007 05:25:56 Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
  This causes people to make useless comments of the form This bug has X
  votes, why is it only Medium importance!, which causes more e-mail
  notifications and slows down the developers further.

 but still this is a Comunity project, or is it not?
 If what users and comunity desire is not the important for the project, 
 then what is?

I think allowing the developers of the distribution, those who have a
real stake in the success of the software in its entirety, to decide
where to focus their efforts is superior to allowing the mob to decide
what's important.  I also think that using straw-man arguments to make
your point is a mistake.

-- 
Chris

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-10-22 Thread Nicolas Alvarez
On 10/21/07, (``-_-´´) -- Fernando [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 What we need is a DIGG alike system for LP.
 Either by counting the number of subscribers/comments, thumbs up/down (digg 
 alike), or an hybrid way of all this.
 What do you guys think?

A digg thumb up for that idea :)

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Re: Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-10-22 Thread Matthew Paul Thomas

On Oct 22, 2007, at 1:05 PM, (``-_-´´) -- Fernando wrote:

...
What we need is a DIGG alike system for LP.
Either by counting the number of subscribers/comments, thumbs up/down 
(digg alike), or an hybrid way of all this.

What do you guys think?
...


For a variety of reasons, how many votes a bug report receives from the 
sort of people who hang out in bug trackers (as wonderful as those 
people usually are) is often very different from how important the bug 
is to the project in general.


This causes people to make useless comments of the form This bug has X 
votes, why is it only Medium importance!, which causes more e-mail 
notifications and slows down the developers further.


It's possible that the extra noise voting would add to the bug tracker 
would be less than the noise it would subtract from mailing lists like 
this one. But in the absence of evidence about whether something will 
help overall, we tend to err on the side of not implementing it.


Cheers
--
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http://mpt.net.nz/


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Re: evince crash

2007-10-09 Thread Todd Deshane
On 10/9/07, Sebastien Bacher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Le mardi 09 octobre 2007 à 14:29 +0200, Vincenzo Ciancia a écrit :

  windows or osx, _they_ will come to me and say it sucks. And, damn, they
  will be right. If you can't print a pdf with the default settings of the
  distribution, how can you propose ubuntu in a scientific environment? I

 Maybe you should do some testing sooner next cycle? The bug has been
 opened after the rc freeze, the gutsy milestone was not really realistic
 from there


In one sense I would like to pulll back ever raising this to this
list, I realize it was out of line (and on a issue that is not even a
top priority for me personally). In another sense however, I did learn
a lot about the process and a little about how active and attentive
the community is. I really do think Ubuntu is different and has shown
from the beginning that it values it users. The community is very
diverse and very helpful.


I, like the others on this list hope that Gusty is the best yet. So,
we do what we can as users, testers, developers, etc. Thank you all
for your constructive criticism and I hope that anybody that followed
along with this thread learned something and the signal to noise ratio
wasn't too bad.

Best Regards,
Todd


 Cheers,

 Sebastien Bacher



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Re: evince crash

2007-10-09 Thread Sebastien Bacher

Le mardi 09 octobre 2007 à 14:29 +0200, Vincenzo Ciancia a écrit :

 windows or osx, _they_ will come to me and say it sucks. And, damn, they
 will be right. If you can't print a pdf with the default settings of the
 distribution, how can you propose ubuntu in a scientific environment? I

Maybe you should do some testing sooner next cycle? The bug has been
opened after the rc freeze, the gutsy milestone was not really realistic
from there


Cheers,

Sebastien Bacher



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Re: evince crash

2007-10-08 Thread Todd Deshane
Hi All,

On 10/8/07, Aaron Whitehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  I think crashes are not a good sign, so I was hoping to raise some
  awareness of this problem.

 Quite a few people have been raising awareness about bugs that they
 have filed. I too have filed some seriously nasty bugs that make Gutsy
 close to unusable for me (mostly to do with compiz and the -intel
 driver being used by default). They are still sitting there without
 having been looked at and we are about a week from release.

 My point is simply this: the more people that raise awareness about
 bugs, the more people will look at what is being mentioned and think
 that their bugs are more important. This will mean that the list gets
 clogged with messages like this and people will unsubscribe from the
 list. If I want a list of high-priority bugs then I will search for
 them in Launchpad.

 There is a system in place already to triage and rate the importance
 of bugs. If that system is broken then we need to fix it. Trying to
 circumvent the system by posting to this list is not sustainable.

 Feel free to disagree.


I have felt that the traffic on this list has been relatively light.
Most threads are concerning discussion type issues. There have only
been a few raised bugs.

I have no problem resisting to send bugs, but I thought that this
would be a list for discussion on such issues.

clipped from: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
# Sharing of experiences with the current development branch of Ubuntu
# Technical questions about new features in the development branch
# Ideas and suggestions about future development of Ubuntu
# Point of contact for Ubuntu users to reach Ubuntu developers
# Open to all to subscribe, posting moderated for non-subscribers


It seems to me that if users, developers and testers that are
following this list care about a particular issue or bug they can
raise it here. If it generates no discussion and others simply ignore,
then it is probably not a big issue.

I raised this one in particular only because I wanted to try to find
others to test, since it was a special case requiring a ACM account.

Also, the fact that the release is close, to me means that any major
bugs should pass by more eyes and get more attention. To me it seems
as though that is what an open source community is for. Like I said,
if the consensus is not to raise such issues on this list, then I will
refrain. Just let me know.

Thanks,
Todd

 Regards,

 Aaron


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Re: evince crash

2007-10-08 Thread Aaron Whitehouse
 It seems to me that if users, developers and testers that are
 following this list care about a particular issue or bug they can
 raise it here. If it generates no discussion and others simply ignore,
 then it is probably not a big issue.

I see your point. The same rationale, however, would support sending a
report of each new bug filed to the list. Everyone on the list *could*
ignore anything that they weren't interested in.

 Also, the fact that the release is close, to me means that any major
 bugs should pass by more eyes and get more attention.

Most people tend to see their bugs as major. I don't mean to lessen
the frustration of your plight, but not being able to view a pdf on a
password restricted site isn't the most major bug that I have seen
filed against Gutsy. In some ways there is a problem with the way
users can't rate the importance of their own bugs. I filed a bug about
suspend locking up my laptop every time it is used and one about the
default spellchecker for NZers being en_US instead of en_UK. Clearly
one is more important than the other, but they have the same
importance prior to being triaged. The counter-argument, I assume,
is that normal people can't be trusted to objectively rate the
importance of their bugs.

I have grave issues with Gutsy... especially seeing as it is about a
week from release. I have tested each milestone since pre-Breezy for
the LaptopTesting reports and Gutsy is the least stable for me yet.
That is largely, as I said earlier, a result of -Intel and Compiz. I
filed my reports against each package and they are still sitting there
untouched. So perhaps you are right that I should have pestered the
list instead. I just don't see it as being a good policy.

To be fair, I have now succeeded in generating more noise than the
recent bug awareness raising has!

Regards,

Aaron

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Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

2007-10-08 Thread Todd Deshane
On 10/8/07, Aaron Whitehouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  It seems to me that if users, developers and testers that are
  following this list care about a particular issue or bug they can
  raise it here. If it generates no discussion and others simply ignore,
  then it is probably not a big issue.

 I see your point. The same rationale, however, would support sending a
 report of each new bug filed to the list. Everyone on the list *could*
 ignore anything that they weren't interested in.

  Also, the fact that the release is close, to me means that any major
  bugs should pass by more eyes and get more attention.

 Most people tend to see their bugs as major. I don't mean to lessen
 the frustration of your plight, but not being able to view a pdf on a
 password restricted site isn't the most major bug that I have seen
 filed against Gutsy. In some ways there is a problem with the way
 users can't rate the importance of their own bugs. I filed a bug about
 suspend locking up my laptop every time it is used and one about the
 default spellchecker for NZers being en_US instead of en_UK. Clearly
 one is more important than the other, but they have the same
 importance prior to being triaged. The counter-argument, I assume,
 is that normal people can't be trusted to objectively rate the
 importance of their bugs.

Agreed. But, in that light who is brave enough to raise any bugs or issues?

There are a lot of issues that get discussed that don't interest me,
but I just don't read into them as much. I do see your point, and it
is a good one, the signal to noise raise needs to be high. So, I
haven't raised other things I have found, since I didn't think they
would be interesting to a general audience or they are seemingly
obvious bugs that everyone should see. This one, being that it is an
app that most people will use and may be hitting an edge case and it
may just have a chance of being fixed before release.

 I have grave issues with Gutsy... especially seeing as it is about a
 week from release. I have tested each milestone since pre-Breezy for
 the LaptopTesting reports and Gutsy is the least stable for me yet.
 That is largely, as I said earlier, a result of -Intel and Compiz. I
 filed my reports against each package and they are still sitting there
 untouched. So perhaps you are right that I should have pestered the
 list instead. I just don't see it as being a good policy.


I think your issues are probably more important for a list such as
this. I know that there was requests at some point for experiences and
feelings about compiz.


 To be fair, I have now succeeded in generating more noise than the
 recent bug awareness raising has!


This list has been pretty good about generating good content. Maybe I
was too quick to fire of the evince crash email. I just wonder where
the line should be? For example, some things should probably go to the
users list, but would they get lost in the noise there?

And coming close to a release was another reason. I still think this
list has been quiet considering that.

Regards,
Todd


 Regards,

 Aaron


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