t3g: Magic Banana makes a good point here about the problem existing because
of the lack of resources (people/money). Rubén doesn't have the time to deal
with setting a definite schedule, maintaining the forums, etc. If he gets
sick there isn't anybody who can take up the slack. If his other job requires
him to work late to meet a deadline that's time from working on Trisquel.
With other distributions there are more participants in the development
process and paid developers. There is someone to manage the projects.
Responsibilities can be delegated. Not so with Trisquel. Even with volunteers
it makes more sense for Rubén to do stuff himself because volunteers (except
the most dedicated) distract him from getting real work done. They take up
more time to manage than they contribute in other words.
If we want to see Trisquel improve then we need to find the money. Especially
now. It's not Rubén's burden to get things done on a specific deadline. It's
our burden as users to get him situation so he can meet deadlines.
Rubén's not demanding $99 for each and every upgrade. He's not charging for
access to the download servers or repositories. These are things he could
charge for and it would still be legitimately free software. Trisquel would
still be complaint with the four freedoms.
Trisquel isn't about being available for no cost. It's about the freedom.
t3g: Maybe I should ask you this. It sounds like your reasoning is "Trisquel
isn't doing what I want so I won't contribute". Yet you are still using it.
It would be one thing if Trisquel was non-free. It seems like another though
if it is free and the project simply isn't able to meet your demands. The
fact you are using it suggests to me (provided you are able) that you should
contribute (if things are to be fair).
You wouldn't go into a restaurant and not tip the waiter when you were served
even if they didn't meet your full expectations would you? This does assume
you are in a country where the waiter's pay is what you voluntarily tip
(largely). I certainly wouldn't.
If Rubén "made official" the unofficial schedule (without any guarantees of
course) and put this up on the web site would you contribute? How much would
you contribute?
I also just want to point out that Rubén's not actually delaying the release
to a detrimental degree. The security updates which are from the Ubuntu
project are available for a long time after each new release of Trisquel.
This is to give people time to upgrade. The security updates for older short
term releases are available for so long that even Trisquel users should not
have a problem sticking with an outdated version for a long time. Trisquel
5.0 will get security updates until October 2012. It was released in April.
That means you have about 7 months after a new release of Trisquel to
upgrade. If you can't find the time to upgrade within that time period you
need to look at the long term releases.
