[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Oohara Yuuma) writes: > can you tell me what "Our Users" in #4 of the social contract means?
When the Social Contract was originally drafted, the title "Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software" was meant to strike a balance between meeting the needs of those who would use Debian and the idealism of the Free Software movement that we emerged from. The most concrete example of this balance is the existence of non-free. > Since Debian is not a market-share-seeking organization, we don't care > about people who don't use Debian, so it seems a tautology. While Debian cares more about quality and freedom than about seeking market share in the traditional, commercial sense... One of the many ways that members of the Debian community are "rewarded" for their efforts, and receive positive feedback that encourages them to continue to do things, is when the work they do is appreciated and used by others. Another way to look at this, which I think is more practical and helpful to Debian package maintainers on an average day, is to think about it in the context of how we package software. I often get asked for advice about how something should be packaged, and I almost always start by asking "well, how do you expect it to be used?" This reflects my underlying belief that "it works for me" isn't good enough, and we should try to deliver software that "users" (whether they are other members of the Debian community or kids in a classroom somewhere) find relevant and helpful. Bdale
