Well here's my 2 cent's worth on ESR's messages. First he's right on about the stress's involved in being the "spokesman" for any sized group of people. Everyone has their own opinion and most people think they are smarter, could do a better job than you or that they don't even need you. I've been there I can feel his pain.
As for the public debate, I manange a small group of programmers (no I'm not a pointy haired boss! I actually still manange to do some coding) and if any of those guys went over my head on something I'd done without comming to me first I'd be real pissed. I'd have no problems, if after comming to me they felt the situtation still wasn't right, and then went "public" with their problems. The key here is NOT that they went public but that they didn't respect ESR enough to go to him first!
Now the subject of do we need visible leaders, that are "people friendly" at all. Sure OSS and Linux will stay alive is ESR/Linus/whoever go away tommorrow but would it continue to grow?
History should have taught us that it isn't technical merit that gets people to use software it's mind share. How many companies were releasing Linux software 3 years ago? Not many! Do we need it? I do! It's my job to make money (gasp... not the M word) for my employer and I'll use the best tools for the job, be they OSS, commercial or a combination.
The point I'm getting at is that for OSS and Linux to continue to grow we need people in the public eye to speak for the software and the community and that realize that some of us have to sell our products. Does the movement need coporate/user buy-in? If not my bosses probably wouldn't buy into my using it and thus any contributions my team could have made to the community would be lost.
What good is the best tool if 99.5% of the people don't use it?
BTW was anyone else scared sh*tless at ESR's comment about Linus also getting fed up with the hassel. Imagine the field day MS would have with Linus's exit from the picture. I can almost see their new slogan "Don't buy Linux, even it's creator couldn't put up with user community".
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Well here's my 2 cent's worth on ESR's messages. First he's right on about the stress's involved in being the "spokesman" for any sized group of people. Everyone has their own opinion and most people think they are smarter, could do a better job than you or that they don't even need you. I've been there I can feel his pain.
As for the public debate, I manange a small group of programmers (no I'm not a pointy haired boss! I actually still manange to do some coding) and if any of those guys went over my head on something I'd done without comming to me first I'd be real pissed. I'd have no problems, if after comming to me they felt the situtation still wasn't right, and then went "public" with their problems. The key here is NOT that they went public but that they didn't respect ESR enough to go to him first!
Now the subject of do we need visible leaders, that are "people friendly" at all. Sure OSS and Linux will stay alive is ESR/Linus/whoever go away tommorrow but would it continue to grow?
History should have taught us that it isn't technical merit that gets people to use software it's mind share. How many companies were releasing Linux software 3 years ago? Not many! Do we need it? I do! It's my job to make money (gasp... not the M word) for my employer and I'll use the best tools for the job, be they OSS, commercial or a combination.
The point I'm getting at is that for OSS and Linux to continue to grow we need people in the public eye to speak for the software and the community and that realize that some of us have to sell our products. Does the movement need coporate/user buy-in? If not my bosses probably wouldn't buy into my using it and thus any contributions my team could have made to the community would be lost.
What good is the best tool if 99.5% of the people don't use it?
BTW was anyone else scared sh*tless at ESR's comment about Linus also getting fed up with the hassel. Imagine the field day MS would have with Linus's exit from the picture. I can almost see their new slogan "Don't buy Linux, even it's creator couldn't put up with user community".
--Dave