Subject: Re: Will we be able to update to YDL 2 ????
From: Michael Tucker (mtucker@eecs.harvard.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 16:02:49 MDT
Hi All,
> Why? I do not see what is wrong with complaints. I think complaints are
> valuable, you can see what customers find important, and you can, maybe,
> adjust your marketing strategy by that. If I like one thing about using
> open source software, it is that I can complain, and that most of the
> time something is actually done with the complaint.
I agree with Helena on this one, but with a caveat. I think that asking
questions and pointing out problems can be very valuable, but as always
there is the signal vs. noise problem. This list has seen its share of
valuable questions that are thoughtful and show that effort has been made
by the poster to figure out the answer on his own, but there have also
been the HELP messages that give little to no information and are
identified by a ridiculously useless Subject line. Analogously, there
are comments and suggestions about the successes and failings inherent to
YDL2 that are useful and identify potential fixes, and then there are
those that come off more like flames. Now, I love my flames as much as the
next guy, but I would generally prefer a more thoughtful and
less inflammatory discussion when I open my mailbox in the morning. There
are things that really bother me too, say for example the fact PPP still
won't connect properly on my system :), but the manner in which posters
convey their feelings is crucial to keeping a list useful (albeit less
entertaining at times).
> > Comparing these guys to MS is patently absurd.
> >
> > Constructive criticism is helpful. Name calling is not.
>
> I do not think that comparing a company to Microsoft is namecalling (I
> develop (amongst others) Microsoft products for a living), but I now see
> that some people here do.
Frankly, I am no fan of Microsoft products as a general rule, so maybe I
am biased... but it is silly to think that on a Linux mailing list most of
the members don't consider MS to be Satan/the Evil Empire/scourge of the
earth etc etc. Whether or not that is a valid interpretation is a
discussion for a different place/time, but I would hazard to say that if
you polled this list, most of the users would say that they use MS
products (grudgingly?), but they prefer to take their business
elsewhere. Maybe I'm way off, but there seems to be a correlation between
using Linux and hating MS =)
Oh well, just my 2 cents...
Mike
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