fedora mission (was Re: systemd and changes)

[Jesse Keating]

"Jon Masters" <jonathan at jonmasters.org> wrote:

>On Fri, 2010-08-27 at 17:54 -0400, Matthias Clasen wrote:
>> On Fri, 2010-08-27 at 16:37 -0400, Jon Masters wrote:
>> 
>> > 
>> > Ah yes, attack the symptom and not the disease. Yay. Let me let you in
>> > on a secret. Most people (and by which I mean, those not on this list)
>> > generally don't like re-installing or upgrading their computer every 6
>> > months. People install older releases because it's what they have (in
>> > which case, there's a valid reason to push for the latest) BUT also
>> > because they don't want to be using an extension of rawhide. They want
>> > to wait a little time for things to settle down, for there to be fewer
>> > updates to waste their time on, etc. It's the rate of churn, lack of
>> > durability in the length of the cycle, etc. that are the problems.
>> > 
>> > But sure, we can blame the users, and scratch our heads when the figures
>> > indicate what might be happening, why people are jumping ship, etc. and
>> > not have a user survey to tell us what the users want (a fantastic
>> > idea). These would all help maintain the status quo just fine.
>> 
>> Your attack is misguided, Jon. It is very much our responsibility to
>> inform users that the software they install or use is no longer actively
>> supported.
>
>I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the real problem here might be
>people are running older releases because they are looking for a more
>stable environment or just don't want to upgrade every 6 months. This
>isn't a RHEL/other-derivative vs. Fedora thing. Because "Enterprise"
>distributions give you many years and lots more guarantees. Way beyond
>what I personally feel is needed here. But again, since we have never
>taken the initiative to ask people why they leave Fedora or why they
>stick with old releases, we won't know the answer to this.
>
>Again, I feel it is necessary to have a survey of Fedora users.
>Preferably annually. And listen to the feedback. If they say "yep, we
>just love the churn, the number of updates" and so forth, then fine. If
>they say "actually we'd like less than 800 updates after installing",
>then also fine. I'm sorry to beat a dead horse, I just feel it is very
>important that we finally, clearly articulate who our users are and what
>they want by treating more like customers and gathering their input.
>


The cynic in me would expect that the people who want something different than the fire hose we have now are silently leaving, and those that are left are going to say they like the deluge of updates.

Or I could just quote Henry Ford, or any other people who talk about design by committee.  
-- 
Sent from my Android phone. Please excuse my brevity.