On Sep 27, 2005, at 2:01 AM, Szechuan Death wrote:
Yes, I _am_ full of grandmotherly kindness, as well as invariably
excellent advice. It is well that you realize this. In this
instance,
that advice was "Do not spurn good ideas", "Do not whine about your
users not buying CDs if you're in the business of writing free
software, because nobody wants to hear it", and "This is what
implementing this suggestion will buy you". Nowhere did I say "You
should spend your time doing this". You need to read a little more
carefully. Speaking a little more carefully wouldn't hurt either.
Why do these wackos come out of the woodwork every 6 months to "help"
the project?
Theo doesn't want or need your talk. The project needs users of
their code to help out by purchasing a CD, shirt, maybe even a
poster. Nag your buddy who you usually lend your CD to, or that
downloads via FTP, to skip this month's copy of Gamer's L33t Monthly
and buy a CD. No amount of DHTML or AJAX is going to affect the
number of orders placed.
Good intentions are not enough. Almost one year ago to date, I
announced the OpenBSD Enterprise Bundle [0]. Received with great
fanfare and excitement, can you guess how many good-intentioned users
and corporate entities stepped up with their cold, hard cash? ZERO.
So the next time you think your "grand new idea" is going to change
the world, think again. Besides, the OpenBSD project isn't here for
World Domination [1]. That's someone else.
[0] http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=109648786731451&w=2
[1] http://www.openbsd.org/goals.html
--
Jason Dixon
DixonGroup Consulting
http://www.dixongroup.net
