Dennis Peterson wrote:
Everyone is a volunteer - the best that can be done in an all-volunteer market place is being done now.
...
Open source is a beautiful thing but it does not come with a promise of endentured servitude on the part of the maintainers.
Yes, it's a volunteer effort, but it is also perfectly legitimate for end-users of open source applications to provide feedback to the project developers. I'm not a code contributor on ClamAV, and I don't think you are either, but on projects where I do contribute, I look forward to end-user feedback, as it helps direct your efforts.
It's a mistake to take the stance that just because it is an open source project, there is no legitimate feedback other than code patches. However, that doesn't mean that end-users should expect their needs to be met on their time table, or at all, if resources aren't available.
Again, rather than attacking the premise, a more legitimate response from someone who isn't actually writing the code is to offer an opinion on where you think the OPs request should fall on the list of priorities.
For the actual developers, they could point the OP toward the correct down-steam parties, agree with his point and say where it is or isn't on the priority list, or provide an explanation for why they think it isn't an area where they will spend their time. Any of those are perfectly fine responses.
-Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/ _______________________________________________ http://lurker.clamav.net/list/clamav-users.html
