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On 13:48 Wed 23 Jan , Steve Long wrote: |
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> Richard Freeman wrote: |
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> > True. I think one of the underlying issues in this mess though is "who |
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> > is the customer?" |
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> > |
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> I accept your points, but a distro's customers are its end-users. Simple. |
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> Doesn't matter if some of them happen to be devs or power-users or |
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> developers from other projects or a total newb. They are Gentoo's |
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> customers. |
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> |
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> The same applies to any software-project. If you don't look after your |
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> users, you don't get paid (in the real world.) Without users Gentoo will |
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> wither eventually. No real glory in working on a project no-one uses (even |
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> if you and your mates think it's great and continue to use it; where will |
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> you get new devs from when the others get a real job?) |
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|
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Users come naturally once you've got a great product, which comes |
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naturally once you've got great developers. The motivation of developers |
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to create such a product exists before there are users, and studies of |
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OSS projects have shown that it's rarely that a developer's intrinsic |
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motivation is to get users. |
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|
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New users may be drawn by the userbase (the community aspect) in |
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addition to the product. New developers are drawn by the product or by |
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the existing developers. Since new developers generally come from the |
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user base, there would be some decline, but I suspect smaller than you |
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would think. |
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|
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Thanks, |
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Donnie |
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-- |
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