Hi, Jürgen,
Interspersed reply...
On 10/24/13 1:01 AM, Jürgen Spitzmüller wrote:
2013/10/24 Ken Springe
Not professional ? Right, don't use it then.
Not sure how you feel, so no reply.
He's serious, and so am I: if you want "professional" software and think
LyX is not professional (or if it does not fit your needs for other
reasons), don't use it. Sine ira et studio. That's a perfectly sane
decision.
I'm afraid both you and Vincent misunderstood Rich's original post, and
mine, and possibly missed Rich's reply
news://news.gmane.org:119/CAKh=ax83kk2gzk7urwhnluo2nbaixxv6jvdvyvswtejyf3f...@mail.gmail.com
and my reply news://news.gmane.org:119/[email protected] where
we think we made it clear our comments do not apply to LyX, but the
community as a whole.
Regarding my reply to Vincent's, "Not professional ? Right, don't use it
then.", it's simply an issue with text only based communication, where
there are multiple ways of interpreting what has been written.
Regardless of the native language of the writer.
I could have read his reply as being light hearted, friendly, as "Well,
OK, don't use it." Or I could have read it as "OK, A$$hole, go f**k
off!" Or, the feeling behind the words could be something in between.
With such a short reply, and no indicators such as smilies to let me
know the emotion behind the comment, I don't know how Vincent feels with
his reply.
Years ago, I saw flame wars get started over comments this simple.
The difference between commercial software and open source projects is
that the former produces software for "the market" and gets money for a
living of it (which results in some obligations towards the paying
users), while the latter produce software for themselves (the open
source group, while non-active users can use the software as a benefit).
I devote my (rare) free time to LyX development to get a good product
for myself. Nothing else. Of course I listen to users wishes (and I
think people on this list can acknowledge that all of "us" do), but I
only take them up if I find them interesting enough to devote my (spare)
free time or if I need the feature myself. I think nobody can expect
more from me.
Agreed, but there is the cross over segment of program developers. This
group develops the software, but then charges for help and assistance.
I may be wrong, but I think Red Hat/Fedora used to do this, and may
still do it. I purchased, yes purchased, a copy of Red Had 9 from a
long gone computer retail company to try it out. Ended up not using Red
Hat for reasons not related to this discussion.
This group is obviously trying to make money from the FOSS software.
There is also the segment of the open source area where they actively
ask you to file bugs that can be fixed. Then the bugs just sit there,
never getting fixed. If you aren't going to actively fix the bugs, then
don't ask for help in identifying those bugs. This is the "non
professional" attitude I'm talking about. Even worse are the developers
who say this and also say they want to compete against a commercial product.
It isn't the software that isn't or couldn't be professional, it's the
attitudes of developers who indicate they wish to be professional, but
they are not in this area.
This is how I came into LyX development, as a complete programming
novice: I wanted some things to change, and no one took it up, so I did
myself.
So if you think that "we" want LyX to be commercially widespread or
successful, you misunderstood us (and the whole open source movement).
Everybody certainly has individual motives, but for many developers
(including me), "success" does not mean "rule the world" or "kick out
program X from the market" (I do not care at all for this kind of
"goal"), but: attract more developers, make the application as YOU want
it, have fun, learn something.
Just to be clear, Rich and I have indicated our general comments were
not LyX specific.
As an observation only, any FOSS developer group may not want to have
the impression the goal is to be a commercial level project, but there
is no way you can control how others see the software package as "word
of mouth" comments are passed from one person to another.
So it's possible that the impression of Group A is the desire to be at
this level, but that is not the intent of the members of Group A.
So if you think LyX is not the right tool for you, use something else. I
could not care less, really.
But, you do care, otherwise you would not have replied. <G>
Returning to Vincent's reply, "Not professional ? Right, don't use it
then.", not using a particular FOSS program is exactly why I'm going to
try LyX and on this list. It's also why I'm trying Scrivener
(commercial software and paid for. :-) ), which to me/for me is darned
near perfect for organizing your research and then getting something on
paper. As I said, I think at this moment, the odds are 99% in favor I
will not use Scrivener for any final output, except possibly epub,
Then, maybe, use Calibre for converting to specific epub formats.
Another FOSS program I've just started to use, in my search for
commercial alternatives, is Dia.
But I've not used LyX, Calibre, or Dia enough to have an opinion of the
"professional" attitudes of folks behind the scenes.
And... That's enough writing, I need to eat breakfast! LOL
--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8
LibreOffice 4.1.1.2
