Re: Better than YDL and OSX


Subject: Re: Better than YDL and OSX
From: Donn Tarris (donntarris@telus.net)
Date: Mon Oct 29 2001 - 19:38:07 MST


On Monday, October 29, 2001, at 03:52 PM, Nathan A. McQuillen wrote:

> Now, to address that issue: I don't think it's "bizarre" to consider
> this:
>
>> That would be because you came off as a freaking whiner. "Waah, YDL
>> didn't meet the unrealistic expectations I invented for it, screw you
>> guys, I'm going home!"
>>
>> It doesn't help your case that this whining came attached to an
>> all-too-typical luser plea for somebody else to do work for you.
>> Show at least a LITTLE incentive; it's not THAT difficult to figure
>> out how to remove yourself from a mailing list, especially if you
>> were smart enough to archive the first message you got from the list
>> server...
>
> to be insulting and intimidating, and I don't feel that it belongs on an
> open help list. It's simply inappropriate -- it's an ad hominem attack
> ("freaking whiner" -- "all-too-typical" -- "if you were smart enough")
> launched on someone for what? for voicing his frustration?...

Remember Nathan, this particular engineer with a penchant for putting
people off - good thing he's most likely a "behind the scenes" person as
opposed to someone who must communicate with other humans...
The attitude displayed by TS is one of the ones that I believe hold
linux back - he WANTS it to be his private club and doesn't care whether
you or any other person get into it.

> You also wrote:
>
>> And yes, I am an engineer. I don't think you are stupid if you don't
>> want to live in my world. But I reserve the right to think you
>> stupid if you want to use software that requires living a little in
>> my world but expect it to be a cakewalk for no obvious reason.
>
> It has been said before, I think in this thread, that YDL is definitely
> promoted as more of a "cakewalk" than some have found it to be. I for
> one
> think the reason *is* pretty obvious -- a lot of folks with PPC hardware
> are Mac users, and YDL is /not/ advertised as a server-only or lab-only
> distro (there's Black Lab for that) nor even as something which most Mac
> users would be terrifically unfamiliar with. But this has already been
> addressed well and at length by that earlier post.

It's always a good idea to understand the market you're trying to sell
into - and sell is not always measured by dollars, an idea is sold as
well, to be embraced by others. For linux to continue to exist and grow,
the number of users must grow as well, which means that by all means,
cakewalk is what installation and operation should become. For my own
development in FileMaker Pro I tell users that understanding FileMaker
is good for them, but my software exists to make their use as easy as
possible. If I were to address my clients or others in the way TS does,
I wouldn't convince too many people to come over to my way of doing
things.

YDL needs more work. Apple OS needs more work. OTiS needs more work; as
does all software out there with the possible exception of simpletext -
it does exactly what it's meant to do. The beauty of software is found
in its "life", the fact that it's not static. TS doesn't sound excited
by it anymore, or perhaps never was.

We can reserve the right to NOT think about TS any more.

Cheers
Donn



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