On 11/30/00 4:18 AM, "Simon P. Lucy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> At 21:33 29/11/2000 -0500, John Welch wrote:
>
>> Well, maybe someone who isn't so busy dissing customers as unknowing morons
>> will realize that's a *bad* thing.
>
> This has gone on long enough. You are ranting at the wrong people, though
> given your methods you're unlikely to get any different mileage from
> ranting at the right people. LDAP will or won't happen regardless pretty
> much of anything you have said, since nothing you've contributed so far
> would encourage anyone that LDAP would be a good thing for them (in their
> own terms) to do.
<sigh> Let me ask you something here. Because only about two of you have
gotten it. What do you think is going to happen, rant-wise, if Mozilla 1.0
comes out, is heralded as the one of the crowning glories of the open source
movement, and no LDAP, slow IMAP,etc?
Do you really think that anyone is going to say, "Oh it's open source, they
don't understand what customers are, much less need, so we'll let them
off.'?
Nope. Only it's going to be much worse.
Secondly, the level of my *rant* is related to the response I get. When I
get a reasonable response, I can be amazingly calm. Tell me to shut up and
go away, and pull back a bloody stump.
>
> Patience seems the easiest course, the world hasn't fallen apart in the
> past two weeks and its unlikely it will in the next few months. If you
> don't want to hear claims of Real Soon Now (and no one has actually said
> that, just that its likely to be developed), then don't get involved until
> there is an LDAP client.
Real Soon Now would be a better response. I don't have a choice. I can
explain to my users that, "no, right now Mozilla *and* Netscape 6 are
nothing more than interesting experiments in incorrectly managed projects,
and if you blow out your NS 4.7.5 install for it, you won't be able to get
work done." But that's not going to stop them. I also have a real problem
with the "DON'T TOUCH" school of IT management, so I don't have a real
problem with the users installing software.
But when I am, regularly spending a great deal of time dealing with fixing
the damage that Mozilla and NS6 cause to windows installations, (Thank GOD
that 70% of our desktops are Solaris), then it becomes my problems. When I
get emails that should be tear-stained from readers who ignored my warnings,
and have had Netscape or Mozilla take down their machines, it becomes my
problem.
And If I am catching crap based on a product, then it's going to get shared.
Open Source is no longer the isolated geek lab it once was. The common folk
have heard of you, and are starting to use your work. Get over it. I for one
cannot *wait* for the day when the Stallman gets *reamed* by an 80 year-old
granny...hee.
>
> I think those that have responded here have shown patience with you, you
> might at least reciprocate.
When I get responses that are better than "shut up and go away" in more
words, then I respond to those.
You guys are classic open source. You can't understand that standards
compliance doesn't matter to the *vast* majority of people. They expect
that. It's like AC power support in a toaster. It had *better* be there.
They also could honestly care less about XPFE/XUL/etc. They want a browser
that browses, email that emails, and a fast, pleasant experience. You've got
a fantastic rendering engine, but the package it's wrapped up in is just
awful. It's *been* awful. People have been trying to tell you calmly and
reasonably it's awful. Well now Netscape has released an awful product, and
in the eyes of the world, Netscape *is* Mozilla *is* Netscape. And y'all are
reacting like a deer in the headlights.
There are a LOT more problems than LDAP, but that one is so astoundingly bad
that none of my peers and associates can comprehend how it got the low
priority it did.
I got news for you...I'm the nice one...
john
--
"There is no 'I' in TEAM."
US Navy SEALs
