Asa Dotzler wrote:
>
> > 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.'?
(Let me turn that around - do you expect us to say "Oh, it's John Welch,
he doesn't understand that open source projects don't need customers, so
we'll just let him rant all over us?"... just a thought)
> I think that you are missing something fundamental here. Mozilla
> doesn't have customers like say RedHat or Netscape or Microsoft has
> customers. If you try to nail down our customers it's something like
> nailing down the customers of the linux kernel. Our customers are
> comapnies like Active State who are building a perl and python IDE using
> Mozilla technologies. Our customers are folks like AOL and Gateway who
> are embedding the Mozilla rendering engine in their internet appliance
> or Nokia and Intel with their set top box. Our customers are companies
> like Netscape who are distributing a consumer browser suite or Beonix
> who have said they're working on an enterprise browser suite. When you
> start to look at it like this then John Welch ceases to be a customer.
<aol>Well said, Asa!</aol>
John, I haven't had time to respond to your last reply to one of my own
messages, but this message says what I would have said far more
succinctly than I could. I'm taking the time to respond now because you
have said that my message was a "reasoned response" (personally, I
didn't really think I was saying anything that others weren't expressing
just as well...).
The people here don't have "customers". They are here because either
their *employers* have customers (which is a very different thing - do
you agree with every decision *your* employer makes? No? Then don't rant
at these people over decisions *they* probably don't agree with either)
or they are *volunteering* their time to work on this project because it
suits *them* (either because they want a good browser for their own use,
or just because of the intellectual exercise, or for any number of other
reasons).
So if you and other "customers" don't use Mozilla or Netscape 6, that is
something that these people don't *need* to care about. Those that are
employed to work on Mozilla rightly let their company's management worry
about getting and retaining customers. Those that are working for their
own reasons simply don't care, because "customers" aren't what they get
out of this anyway.
I'm not saying that LDAP isn't important - *everyone* here agrees that
it is. I'm not even defending Netscape's decision to not include it - I
think they should have (and I thought that well before I'd ever read a
post by you). Heck, I think that the first release of 6.0 should have
been browser only. But I'm not the person you need to convince, and
neither is anyone else who is reading this group.
Those people here who are employed by Netscape are told by their
management what they can work on - and until 6.0, LDAP was not one of
the things they were permitted to work on. Sucky decision? Maybe - not
my place to say, but not a decision made by anyone here.
Those people who are volunteering are, I guarantee, already convinced
that LDAP is a good and important thing. However, they are also aware
that (1) we have huge bloat and performance issues, (2) we still crash
too often, (3) we are missing a bunch of other key features, and (4)
there are areas where our standards compliance is still not up to snuff.
Not to mention that, as volunteers, they work on what they *feel like*
working on - the project that most grabs their interest. So far, there
doesn't seem to be anyone who has both the time, ability and desire to
work on LDAP. If it is time or ability that's missing, your ranting
won't help. If it's desire - well, if I'd been thinking about working on
LDAP I might be reconsidering after being yelled at that much, so you
may be doing more harm than good.
The thing is, nobody here is saying you don't have a point. It's a good
point, and we agree with it. But it's not something that we have the
power to change, and so we're asking - begging - you to go and take your
point to the people who *can* change it, because if you can successfully
lobby Netscape to make less sucky management decisions, nobody will be
more grateful than us!
Stuart.
