[OT] Deafening silence

[Russell Miller]

On Saturday 13 March 2010 03:47:52 pm Craig White wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-03-13 at 15:26 -0800, Russell Miller wrote:
> > We are *not* irrelevant.  I'm not, and neither is the OP, and the
> > attitude
> > that says we are is the *problem*.
> 
> ----
> #1 - mentioning Red Hat or the NYSE on a Fedora list is irrelevant.
> 
That's true.  But I don't recall you using the pronoun "You" to refer to Red 
Hat or the NYSE.  But I guess that's not really relevant either.

> Relevance is lending a hand to make things better. Bug reporting,
> submitting better documentation, helping others solve problems. I'm
> sorry that you had problems submitting bug reports but I can see that a
> typical user will have difficulty identifying which software is the
> problem and how to make a bug report but try reporting a bug to Apple or
> Microsoft or any other software company and tell me how well you make
> out. The fact is that open source software actually permits the users
> entry/access to the process and problem resolution paths but cannot
> ensure that the user actually understands his role.
> 
I am not a typical user.  I have been a sysadmin for 12 years.  I have a 
general idea of how a good bug reporting and triaging system should work.  
When I submitted a bug that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was a bug and 
got told it wasn't, I wasn't very happy.  When I made my case that, yes, it is 
a bug, and got told that my report wasn't valid because I put it in the wrong 
place, I wasn't very happy either.  I understand that it's run by volunteers 
but at some point even volunteers should be able to move a bug from one 
package to another, it takes the same amount of time as closing it.

> There are people who light candles and people who curse the darkness.
> 
Yes, and there are people who light candles and have them blown out 
repeatedly.  After a certain amount of time, the candles stop getting lit.

> Marcel is like a broken record - rehashing the same things he groused
> about last week as if yet another 2000 words on the same topics is going
> to be any less of a waste of electrons this week. But I didn't say that
> he was irrelevant or that everything he said was irrelevant. His rants
> are irrelevant.
> 
I see, I somehow stuck myself in the middle of a flame war.  Fair enough.  I 
follow the list in a middling manner and only read things that pop out at me.

> Yes, Fedora is imperfect... it's also an imperfect world. If he or
> anyone else needs help with a specific issue, they are almost always
> handled expeditiously. But if he or someone else wants to draw big
> picture issues, they should at least understand something about open
> source development, software packaging, the origins, the process, etc.
> Otherwise, they are irrelevant.
> 
Never in my case.  Make of it what you will.

But the person who said "if you're so unsatisfied with fedora find another one 
you like" may have a point after all.  I'm not unsatisfied with Fedora, but who 
knows, maybe ubuntu, etc., has a better community.  Shrug.  It's a futile 
conversation anyway.  My lone voice isn't going to change anything.

--Russell

> Craig