>
<snip/>
>Why is that flamebait? I'm not a virulent supporter; I use Orion because
>(right now) it still supports what I need best and the bugs I know of
>aren't so severe that I can't work around. There are a LOT of features in
>Orion that simply rock compared to other app servers. That hasn't changed.
>
>Our positions aren't growing weaker, unless you count defections as
>strength in only one fashion. People leaving Orion behind doesn't really
>affect me, other than changing the user base somewhat. As far as
>"strength" is concerned, Ironflare is at the point where (IMHO) they could
>use our support and understanding as a lever to become more responsive
>(again) more than they could use a tide of negative email.
just to clarify here. this is not about dissing the orion team out of
personal anger or whatever. product mailing lists are a great resource to
get a feeling for where the strengths and weaknesses of a product are,
especially when you are evaluating alternatives. I always browse through
archives if I'm interested in a particular product/project (OSS and
commercial) to see how satisfied people are and what kind of problems they
are having. if all the people who have serious problems with orion kept
their mouth shut, the archive would not be of any value in that regard. for
as long as I've been on the mailing list, nobody (including myself, I hope)
has attacked evermind in an unfair unjustified manner. most critical mails
even start with something like "I think orion generally rocks and I support
and respect the evermind guys BUT ...". however, they must be able to deal
with criticism of their responsiveness on the mailing list as nothing
justifies not spending 30 minutes a week to keep people posted on what's
happening, not even working on extending the company (come on, Rickard
Öberg works as lead architect for jBoss, one of the main implementors of
jBoss and some subprojects, finishes his rmi book and posts an average of
several emails a day to support jBoss users). if someone posts test results
from a JMS compatibility testsuite that fails miserably and evermind
responds by saying that JMS has never been their focus then that is not OK
IMHO and something that can be criticised. either you support a certain
spec or you don't. please reread the announcements at java-one and compare
that to the quality orion had in some areas at that time. if after a long
while of no updates with a number of serious bugs open, the only change is
support for yet another feature of a spec that's not even official, that
tells something about the priorities of the team and that is something that
IMO can be criticised on this list and maybe will be taken into account by
newbies evaluating orion to make an informed decision and weigh risks and
benefits (which there are many of) of choosing orion as their
appserver.
it's not about good cop, bad cop
regards,
robert
<snip/>
(-) Robert Krüger
(-) SIGNAL 7 Gesellschaft für Informationstechnologie mbH
(-) Brüder-Knauß-Str. 79 - 64285 Darmstadt,
(-) Tel: 06151 665401, Fax: 06151 665373
(-) [EMAIL PROTECTED], www.signal7.de
