Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 13 May 1999 07:01:25 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net>
To:        David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
Cc:        chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   RE: cvs commit: src/sys/pci pcisupport.c 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.9905130652150.401-100000@picnic.mat.net>
In-Reply-To: <000001be9cf5$3ee86210$021d85d1@whenever.youwant.to>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, 12 May 1999, David Schwartz wrote:

> 
> > If so, maybe it's right.  Of course, then, I and most of the folks that
> > write the code would leave.  The rest could hold arguments about how
> > they'd like to have things coded.  Don't read this last paragraph as
> > sarcastic, it's not meant that way; it does reflect the truth, I think.
> 
> 	Part of this is also the difference between a commercial and a free
> project. But I think that to the extent that you believe your own argument,
> you lend credibility to those who say that FreeBSD and Linux won't be able
> to compete in the corporate arena because what's coded is what the
> developers want, rather than what the users want/need.
> 
> 	I don't know all the answers. I know that argument is wrong,
> and I think your argument is right. I'm just not sure how it is that
> those things reconcile.

OK.  Much of what I'm going to say here is pure opinion, understand; I
don't hold it forth as fact (like I did the top paragraph).  The
situation that I *think* you want, where the users do the controlling,
doesn't now and never did exist.  I've worked for enough companies to
know that you code for your boss, not the public, and what the boss
wants very often has nearly nothing at all to do with that which the
public is clamoring for.  There are isolated cases where the connection
between want and need is closer, but it's not the rule.

My, that sound cynical.

The point I'm want to make is the comparison of free projects. operating
as they do by and for the developer, and commercial projects, very often
operating by and for the boss.  For both, how well they actually offer
what the user wants is in no way a direct thing.

The point I want to make here is what while its not a direct thing, they
both do tend to offer a close facsimile of what the public wants.  Let
me repeat that: they are neither directly driven by what the public
wants, but they both serve that function anyway.

In your paragraph above, you assume that developers will do drastically
wrong things, and that commercial interests will do drastically right
ones.  Perhaps I'm putting words in your mouth?  Try your top paragraph
again, maybe I'll agree closer.

The one thing developers won't do (and the single thing I abhor most
about commercial interests) is be monpolistic.  I detest Microsoft for
that reason, and wouldn't work for them, no matter how much lucre they
offered.

> 
> 	DS
> 
> 

----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Chuck Robey                 | Interests include any kind of voice or data 
chuckr@picnic.mat.net       | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1  |
Greenbelt, MD 20770         | I run picnic (FreeBSD-current)
(301) 220-2114              | and jaunt (Solaris7).
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------






To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.10.9905130652150.401-100000>