The fault in this argument is that it assumes all customers are merely end-users with little technical skills or appreciation. As a programmer my dollar counts just as much as that from an "end-user". There is more than one type of customer Mandrake must consider and there is nothing to necessitate programmers MUST be a second priority. A lot of Mandrake's potential success could fall in its acceptance with the Free Software community and/or the ability of the Free Software community to expand on their ideas. It could also be financially sound to reduce maintenance costs which can be just as effective as increased revenue. Let's not be too critical of Mandrake's efforts to improve the distro.
On Tuesday 08 October 2002 08:03 am, Praedor Tempus wrote: > On Tuesday 08 October 2002 08:38 am, Todd Flinders wrote: > > Let's not forget the end users might also be programmers. As a > > programmer I appreciate the increased efficiency and better design. What > > if we want to tinker with the code? What I'm trying to say is that > > there's more than one angle to address. It's an evolving process. If > > there are ideas to improve the system, that's great, but I don't think we > > should get too harsh. > > There is an important point to consider, however. If one is intending to > be a commercial vendor of software, one of the MAIN considerations has to > be useability/ease-of-use. Ease of code maintenance or code efficiency for > programmers MUST be a secondary concern. Debian can get away with the > latter, as can a lot of raw open source projects (unfortunately). > In all too many cases, developers of opensource software don't give a > damn for the user, all they care about is having fun coding, making > efficient code, scratching an itch. If the interface to their code is a > useability nightmare, too bad - don't use it (their typical response). For > a commercial company seeking users and money from users, this is a bankrupt > attitude and is economically untenable. > While I can appreciate that revamping code can make it easier to maintain > or update from the developer point of view, you must NEVER lose sight of > the fact that end-user useability issues are very VERY important and should > actually take front and center station. It doesn't matter how easy to > maintain, how stable, or how efficient a piece of code is if it is simply > not easy to use. Many simply will not use it or will move to another > distro/product that IS easy to use. > I am not actually taking a nasty shot at Mandrake here, as it remains my > distro of choice at this time. I do seek to remind the Mandrake developers > that they are a commercial operation seeking new users and big money-making > accounts. You cannot, under any circumstances, sideline > useability/ease-of-use for the sake of the ease and comfort of your > developers and still remain a viable commercial enterprise. There seems to > be some valid complaints about the revamping of rpmdrake from the user > point of view, for instance. I don't know personally because I cancelled my > 9.0 order based on reviews online and comments in this list - I will wait > for 9.1 to give Mandrake a chance to fix new bugs and useability issues. > That said, it may be/should be possible to simply correct some of these > user issues without wrecking the easy-to-maintain-and-upgrade desires of > the Mandrake developers. As much as is possible, and even at the expense > of some developer/coder comfort, the end-user experience should be > maintained or enhanced - this is what makes more customers and return > customers. > > praedor
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
