KDE 4 problems highlight shift from community users to consumers
Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 66.59.110.101]
on July 17, 2008 04:43 PM
Serious question: How many people who advocate the "community of users" approach over the "consumer" approach are willing and _able_ to contribute significantly to a project as large as KDE? Even if that number is an incredibly large portion of all KDE users, it will shrink as more "regular users" try Linux.
I think I'm pretty involved in my particular "Linux community" of Slackware users. I post questions and solutions in the official support forum, and even volunteer some time on a FOSS application helping to maintain its wiki and test its features.
However, I'm firmly a user and not a programmer. I'm familiar enough with some programming and scripting languages to read the code and make small modifications, but that's about it. Oh, I'm also pretty good at compiling software from source -- something that most distributions render less necessary due to automated package handling.
The thing is, I'm a pretty advanced user when compared to nearly all the computer users I know. Being able to write short scripts, edit configuration files, and dig into the intracacies of make and cmake put me light years ahead of most users, but make me a bottom-feeder compared to real Linux power-users.
I wouldn't even know _how_ to contribute to KDE 4 aside from testing it and issuing bug reports. Frankly, that level of involvement still requires a pretty significant dedication of time and a willingness to accept bugs and problems. I might be willing to dedicate the time and risk computer problems, but most people aren't.
My point is simply that no FOSS project can expect much cooperation from its users simply because, as Linux becomes a lot more popular, most Linux users probably _can't_ help.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
KDE 4 problems highlight shift from community users to consumers
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 66.59.110.101] on July 17, 2008 04:43 PMI think I'm pretty involved in my particular "Linux community" of Slackware users. I post questions and solutions in the official support forum, and even volunteer some time on a FOSS application helping to maintain its wiki and test its features.
However, I'm firmly a user and not a programmer. I'm familiar enough with some programming and scripting languages to read the code and make small modifications, but that's about it. Oh, I'm also pretty good at compiling software from source -- something that most distributions render less necessary due to automated package handling.
The thing is, I'm a pretty advanced user when compared to nearly all the computer users I know. Being able to write short scripts, edit configuration files, and dig into the intracacies of make and cmake put me light years ahead of most users, but make me a bottom-feeder compared to real Linux power-users.
I wouldn't even know _how_ to contribute to KDE 4 aside from testing it and issuing bug reports. Frankly, that level of involvement still requires a pretty significant dedication of time and a willingness to accept bugs and problems. I might be willing to dedicate the time and risk computer problems, but most people aren't.
My point is simply that no FOSS project can expect much cooperation from its users simply because, as Linux becomes a lot more popular, most Linux users probably _can't_ help.
#