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Kari Hazzard <karimarie@××××××××.edu> posted |
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200610090740.54261.karimarie@××××××××.edu, excerpted below, on Mon, 09 |
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Oct 2006 07:40:53 -0400: |
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> On Thursday 05 October 2006 10:48 am, Chris Gianelloni wrote: |
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>> What about *our* choice to not waste time building things we don't want? |
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> |
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> So what about those of us who DO want that? Forcing us into an installer |
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> is more constricting and gives us less freedom--That's not the Gentoo way. |
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|
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What many often forget is that the Gentoo devs are all volunteers. |
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Forcing a volunteer to do /anything/ is... problematic. If they don't |
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want to do it, they simply quit volunteering. |
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|
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By the same token, if it's volunteers that are doing it, they are |
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obviously interested in what they are doing. Gentoo's reasonably open |
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(some would say /too/ open) to developers starting their own projects, |
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contributing to Gentoo whatever it is they are interested in, and also |
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quite open to folks becoming developers if they put their mind and effort |
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into it. If enough users want something the volunteer devs aren't doing, |
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one way or another, /someone/ will pick it up and run with it. That's |
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what the FLOSS community is all about, really, the ability/empowerment to |
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take code and form it into what /you/ want, if you don't like the way the |
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existing project is managing things. If enough users want it, it /will/ |
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happen, because either some of them will become devs and volunteer the |
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time to /make/ it happen, or they'll become devs and fork Gentoo if |
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necessary to make it happen, or in the event none of them are skilled |
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enough to do it personally, they'll invest as necessary to ensure someone |
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else does it. A single user might not be able to do it without the |
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skills if he likewise lacks funds, but a group of users working together |
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certainly could. After all, if this wasn't possible, none of what |
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presently exists in the community /would/ presently exist. It'd all |
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still be a dream in a few guys' heads. |
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Additionally, as already mentioned by others, Gentoo even empowers you to |
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do it yourself by providing the same tools that Gentoo itself uses, |
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catalyst and the like, so you don't even have to start from scratch to do |
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it. Use the minimal and catalyst and roll your own. While Gentoo can't |
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be all things to all people -- that can't be what choice in this context |
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means, as it's impossible -- it /can/ and /does/ provide the tools, as a |
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metadistribution, that allow you to roll your own variation on the theme, |
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if you find that more convenient than using the choices Gentoo /does/ |
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provide. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list |
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