>>"David" == David Wright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> I certainly do not understand how you come to the conclusion that
>> this statement of mine is dishonest;
David> I didn't mean that perjoratively, but I did mean it
How can an accusation of dishonesty be anything _but_ pejorative?
David> logically. There are two justifications for supporting many
David> architectures on the table:
David> (1) We wanna.
Yup.
David> (2) It's for the good of the users.
Nope.
David> (1) may well be true, but it's not exactly part of Debian's "marketing
David> rhetoric" as embodied in the social contract.
All if Debian is done just because we wanna. And, once we are
doing this, we do put concern for the users as an goal (an abstract
user, instead of any individual or group). We do not say that we
shall favour any group of users because of their number; we do not
want to go the microsoft way.
Popularity does not figure in this. And if it is a matter of
selecting between two sets of users, the discretion lies with those
doing the work. People who work on porting are doing so of their own
free will (I have not spent a second doing so, really, in the last
year or so). People who do chose to work so can't be reassigned
merely for the benefit of users on an architectyure that maintainer
does not want to work on.
There is a similarity for the argument: My taxes pay for the
gummint. So the gummint works for me. You work foir the gummint, so
you work for me. So I order you, mr police man, not to write that
ticket for speeding.
What works collectively, in the abstract, does not work in the
specific; and unlike an elected governement, in Debian people who are
not part of the project really have no franchise. Even Debian
leadership cannot tell a developer what to work on -- and that has
ever been the case.
David> (2) is just not true.
Was never meant to be.
David> Now, if your justification is really only (1), then of course
David> this arguement is irrelevent.
I am glad we concur.
manoj
--
We question most of the mantras around here periodically, in case you
hadn't noticed. :-) Larry Wall in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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