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diff --git a/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20101018/002462.html b/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20101018/002462.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2912807f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20101018/002462.html @@ -0,0 +1,187 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> +<HTML> + <HEAD> + <TITLE> [Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection + </TITLE> + <LINK REL="Index" HREF="index.html" > + <LINK REL="made" HREF="mailto:mageia-discuss%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-discuss%5D%20Mageia%20logo%20proposals%20and%20selection&In-Reply-To=%3C4CBC6761.3080502%40roadrunner.com%3E"> + <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,nofollow"> + <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> + <LINK REL="Previous" HREF="002461.html"> + <LINK REL="Next" HREF="002463.html"> + </HEAD> + <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> + <H1>[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection</H1> + <B>Frank Griffin</B> + <A HREF="mailto:mageia-discuss%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-discuss%5D%20Mageia%20logo%20proposals%20and%20selection&In-Reply-To=%3C4CBC6761.3080502%40roadrunner.com%3E" + TITLE="[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection">ftg at roadrunner.com + </A><BR> + <I>Mon Oct 18 17:27:29 CEST 2010</I> + <P><UL> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="002461.html">[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="002463.html">[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#2462">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#2462">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#2462">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#2462">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + <HR> +<!--beginarticle--> +<PRE>Gustavo Giampaoli wrote: +><i> So, I'm sorry but I agree with the people who want to target this +</I>><i> "ordinary people". Because I don't think that making Mageia easier and +</I>><i> friendly hurt or damage advanced users. Linux will be always powerful, +</I>><i> with the right packages. And any advanced user can make "urpmi +</I>><i> my-advanced-packages" whenever he/she needs. +</I>><i> +</I>><i> We need to attract more non-linux users. +</I>><i> +</I> +This is getting very repetitive. Your argument, and the arguments of +those who argue your point of view all make perfect sense and flow +logically, *IF* you accept the premise that the mission of Mageia is to +entice computer-ignorant or computer-antagonistic people, or even just +non-linux newbies, to use Mageia. + +This *might* be a given if Mageia was a company organized to make a +profit. But it's not. It's a group of primarily technical people who +decided to fork Mandriva because they felt that the technical excellence +of the distro was being compromised by Mandriva's corporate goals. + +In a perfect world, where volunteer labor was in infinite supply, and +was paid solely in terms of satisfaction that what they achieved met +their own goals, a community distro would be built up of layers, each +building on the ones below it. + +Developers would not need to care about appealing to users on any level +other than providing needed function. They would produce non-GUI +components which had enough configurable options to satisfy anyone from +your grandma to Linus Torvalds. + +Other developers who were so inclined would write GUI interfaces to +these services which exposed all of this flexibility, or most of it, or +some of it, or very little of it, depending on whether they were +producing a UI aimed at Linus or grandma or someone in between. + +The same would go for installs: the base install would be componentized +and configurable and open, and interested parties would customize this +for a variety of target audiences. + +The FOSS world isn't perfect, but only in the sense that the volunteer +labor supply isn't infinite. Without an infinite supply, the activities +that don't get performed for resource reasons will be determined by the +satisfaction metric - if the target audience isn't important enough to +some group of technical people to impel them to customize a UI and an +install (and documentation) for that target audience, then that audience +won't see their needs addressed. + +In the corporate world, you have to make a profit. Because you have +limited resources, and because you can't risk basing your enterprise on +packages you don't control, you have to address all of the above tasks +with a finite pool of resources. + +Because of that, you can't afford to design your distro to be +configurable and flexible enough to even *potentially* please every set +of target users. Since the number of target user groups determines the +amount of resource you need to satisfy them, it follows that you have to +limit that number in order to satisfy your chosen group or groups with +the resources you can afford. + +This is where marketing becomes invaluable; it uses quantitative +analyses to determine which target group(s) represent the greatest +potential for profit, and the result of those analyses will determine +what development works on, what the tools look like, and what the +install looks like. + +If you accept that the marketing results must be correct, then it makes +no sense for development to build flexibility into software that will +never be used, or for the install team to allow for any install paradigm +that isn't directly oriented to your target user groups. Basically, +marketing drives the truck, and every group associated with production +centers their activity on marketing's objectives. + +This minimizes development costs, and will produce the greatest profit +from the number of sales made. Developers are hired to do only that +work that supports marketing's directives, and the theory is that they +work primarily for the money. They are controlled by Marketing, which +derives its authority from the owners or shareholders ("stakeholders" to +use the fashionable economics term). + +***That said***,,, + +Mageia is not a company. We have no shareholders, and no financial hold +over the developers. No marketing group has directorial authority over +the developers, because there is no "stakeholder" group which can grant +that authority. No number of users suborned from Windows or Mac or +Ubuntu puts a penny into the pockets of anyone involved in Mageia. + +Saying "we believe that a large number of users will switch to Mageia if +we limit our focus to such-and-such" is interesting and may even be +accurate. It is also immaterial, unless the validity of the statement +somehow gives you the authority to direct the actions of the others +involved in Mageia. + +In FOSS, it doesn't. If enough people agree with your objective, you +may find that you have enough critical mass to produce a derived distro +with a face and personality which matches your objectives. + +But to say that the entire community has to direct and/or limit their +efforts to your target group just because you can demonstrate that you +can wean them away from some other product ignores the fact that such a +goal may give no or even negative satisfaction to those expected to do +the technical work. That's not to say that they dispute your skills in +determining a target market, but simply that they derive no satisfaction +in doing or limiting their work to address that market. + +Graham is fond of saying that "you can't be all things to all people", +but that's only true in the area of the spectrum where his skills come +into play. + +In development, the entire concept of Software Architecture and +Component-Driven design is directed towards producing components with +enough flexibility to be configured for any possible use of the +functionality represented by that component. When not constrained by +the profit motive, development will produce flexible and adaptable +components, and rely on upstream integrators to tailor or limit their +function to a particular market. + +In reality, this often aligns with the profit motive, since (oh horrors) +it actually may happen that Marketing is wrong, in which case the +company is at least left with saleable software assets as opposed to +software locked into a vision which didn't work. + +The significant costs of trying to be all things to all people, both in +resource cost and opportunity cost, come much further up the product +development chain, in QA, documentation, marketing, sales focus, and +other such non-development areas. That's where you have to decide which +way(s) to go, to the exclusion of others, not at the development layer. + + +</PRE> + + + +<!--endarticle--> + <HR> + <P><UL> + <!--threads--> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="002461.html">[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="002463.html">[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#2462">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#2462">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#2462">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#2462">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + +<hr> +<a href="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-discuss">More information about the Mageia-discuss +mailing list</a><br> +</body></html> |