Hi, >>"Alex" == Alex Romosan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Alex> but this is not really what you said a few days ago. to quote: Yes, I did say that, didn't I? Manoj> The thing that drives us is that we feel a sense of community Manoj> with people like us, who are like minded enough and have made Manoj> the same commitments we have: to produce free software; and Manoj> they have gone beyond lip service and actually come forth to Manoj> stand up and be counted. We are not islands. We are a Manoj> community. And outsiders fail to realize this. I had just been called a pin headed programmer incapable of making rational decisions ;-) Alex> i don't think in that community you included any users. Yes, and it is close enough to the truth to be believable. The omission is that unsers contribute too: most of my code has benefitted greatly from friendly feedback; and a lot of my motivatin has come from people expressing thanks. A coperative, friendly, community of users is invaluable. Also, I am invilved with an use a large number of free software products: I have been involved with Gnus, CVS, XEmacs, auctex, bbdb, LaTeX2HTML, tetex, and the kernel; In the majority of these cases I hung out there on the lists, using the software, and acting as bug detecting mechanism and and feedback loop: so there is never an absolute distinctin between users and developers. A developer in on project maybe a user in another, and we are all working together for the benefit of the whole. Alex> and then there is that ugly word: outsiders. And yes, there are always outsiders. When you have a community, unless it encompasses all humanity, there are always outsiders. People who do not "get" freedom of software. People who think free software people are suckers to be exploted as free labout. People who come in making rude demands. Poeple who are too important and busy to read instructions, and who need a fix now! People who say developers are pin headed programmers, and they do not need tobe jerked around by them Alex> not that there is anything wrong with being elitist. anyway, Alex> keep up the good work, i, and everybody else, really appreciate Alex> it (even if i disagree strongly with some of your statements). I do not think disagreement is necesarily a bad thing, either. Thanks for the kind words. manoj -- "You realize she's talking about our hamburgers here." Anonymous sixth grader during talk by animal right's activist; Newsweek, May 23, 1988 Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/> Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]