Jesper, This is to suggest that you include Sam's digression quoted below as an addition to your 'expectations' doc. This seems *very* relevant for some issues raised on the user list (to which I crosspost this), so it would simply be a waste to let this get forgotten in the list archive.
I have taken the freedom to add a few 'e's and such where Sam forgot them so that all you need to do is add the markup -- I hope that's ok with you, Sam! ;-) Best, Piotr On Fri, 5 Apr 2002, [iso-8859-1] Sam Trenholme wrote: [..] Open Source software development works differently than proprietary software development. With proprietary software development, all one can do is scream loudly before a bug gets fixed. With open source software development, the bug will not be fixed if the developers do not feel it is important to fix the bug; this is offset by the fact that anyone can quickly become a developer for the project. If one is not a programmer, one can pay someone else to supply the patch. Another advantage of open source software development: There is no line of technical support reps whose job it is to make it as difficult as possible to converse directly with the devlopers. When you reported a Linux kernel bug, you got a response from Alan Cox himself. If you reported a similiar kernel bug in the Windows NT kernel, you would get no farther than talking to a technical support rep, who, while being nice, would not actually get anything done. Of course, there are advantages to talking to a tech support rep. No matter how rude and uncivil the person is talking to the technical support rep, the person has an obligation, based on the values our society has, to be gracious to the complainer. With open source software, however, there is no obligation to stay polite if someone is being rude; the open source developer is free to respond by being rude to the complainer. Of course, any respectable open source developer will simply give the complainer a frank answer: "No". The complainer is free to continue whining after hearing "No". However, such whining will usually result in the complainer getting flamed by other people. Compare this to the technical support rep of a proprietary software solution, who can not, under any circumstances, give a whiner a rightful LART. [..]
