Re: [gnu.misc.discuss,gnu.emacs.gnus] Free software: Packagers vs Developers
Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer@pasteur.fr> writes:
> On Friday 2 July 1999, at 15 h 20, the keyboard of Per Abrahamsen
> <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> wrote:
>
> > For their own problems, maybe. For the users problems, the users are the
> > experts.
>
> As a developer, I cannot disagree more. I'm fed up with useless bug reports
> from people saying "Hey, I tried to run your program and it fails".
Then ignore them, or let other people on your own support network
(that is, the user mailing list) take care of them. In any case, my
standard reply "what did you do? what did you expect to happen? what
did in fact happen?" usually get the important information.
> I prefer pre-digested reports by someone knowledgeable and
> trustable.
Unfortunately, since the Debian packagers are self-selected (or at
least selected from outside), there are no a priori reason for a
developer to assume they are either.
Of course, we all love those users who read and reply to bug reports
in our own support networks.
> If you don't like this wording (which is mine, not Adam's) please stop using
> "middleman" as an insult. We are packagers, and proud of it.
You are both. When you create a package, you are packagers. When you
create your own competing support infrastructure, you are middlemen.
> > I have never heard of it. If he is too busy, couldn't you join as a
> > co-developer of the project, or maybe even take it over?
>
> It's more work and responsabilities. For instance, it means testing
> on other operating systems. You can have a slot time to work on a
> Debian-specific version and not to work on the upstream one.
Yep, it is another social problem that needs to be addressed. The
inherent conflict between the easy Linux (or even Debian) specific
solution, and the hard multiplatform solution.
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