[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > There seems to be a lack of recognition here of how free software > > development works. When people are contributing their time scratching an > > itch for their own edification the LAST thing they want is to have a > > manager to report to. > > I am sick of hearing lectures on this. It is simply NOT true that free > software follows a single model of development. There are many projects > and all have their own methods, some formal and some not very formal. But > the idea that there is ONE method is simply nonsense. You really ought to > know better.
Well strictly speaking I blurred a distinction in that not all free software projects are projects are volunteer projects at all. Projects like Mozilla and Emacs are driven by a single entity with paid developers. But excluding projects like that can you name a single project with a "formal" development process that it requires its developers to follow? And I'll note that my earlier sarcasm had a point. Projects that, while they may be free software, are driven by a single commercial entity frequently drive away any volunteer contributors with their onerous formal development methodologies. Mozilla in particular spent years angsting over why they were failing to attract any community contributors. I'm involved in a fairly large number of free software projects, and have been involved in a great deal more in the past. Certainly all projects use various tools to help. But where they do it's because those tools make their lives easier. Not because it makes it easier for other people watching them. If you phrase your argument in terms of milestones and progress updates and so on and how those things will help other people make use of the work then you're just going to find people continue to ignore it. The way to phrase the argument if you want to win people over is by figuring out how your tools will make the developers' lives easier. -- greg ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster