Re: [gentoo-dev] YaST will be GPL [Virus checked]

[Corvus Corax]

Am Fri, 19 Mar 2004 15:25:32 +0100
schrieb xtv@×××××.de:

> If the requirements mean we have to
> reengineer any single yast-module to enable it to parse all the different
> config-files and work with them in a non intrusive way, then there is the
> question which benefit YaST would bring to gentoo. The same effort then
> could be used to write a genuine gentoo-config - and obviously till today
> nobody cared enough to do this.
>

I think this is where we approach one of the general problems of
open source and its usual "target markets"

many projects seem to be initially created by someone being in
need of some program, not being able to find anything sufficient
for their needs, so they just start it, where later other ppl
join saying oh thats a cool program / project, i gonna help it -
or i have an idea how to improve it, when in search for the same.

This approach leads to the usual target audience being the same
as the program writers and visa versa.

And it works for almost everything,
except easy to use graphical configuration tools,
because to write them, you need depth knowledge of how systems work
- and when you have that depth knowledge,
you are not in need of such a program anymore, since you easily configure it
by editing the files by hand, and the modifications you want to do
are more detailed than a "graphical tool for beginners"
would be able to provide anyway.

In opposition to companies like SuSE who wanted to sell a product / system
and so payed developers for creating a tool they didnt need for themselfs.

A possible solution to the problem could be some sort of
"easy configuration tool contest"
where beginner user could donate via paypal or such for a winners price,
given out later for the best configuration tool written.

or something like this, -- wadda you think?

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