** Lyvim Xaphir (Dienstag, 3. Juni 2003 16:23) [speed] > It is extremely unreliable to rely on impressions rather than > reality; the two must always be separated in order to gain a true > image of the scenario in question. That is if you are truly serious > about getting an honest evaluation. Separating impressions from > reality is what benchmarks are all about. Otherwise, you've got an > emotional evaluation, and that is never reliable when you've got an > investment at stake. > > Timing performance with a watchpiece takes the emotion and > unreliability out of the equation and gives you an honest, true > result. Which is what you want if you are interested in the truth.
Of course, if you want to sell something you have to use figures. There you have to use benchmarks and stopwatches. But during my work with numerous users during the last decade I always realized that the individual impression of the "felt" speed of the system is what sold the package. I know what you mean by "honest, true result" and you are right. But if the user or customer "feels" that his MSIE loads the website faster then you can throw as many figures at him, he'll never buy. Two different points of view and both have their benefits. > > To make it clear: If the majority of members who actually voted did > > recommend something then the developpers would try to do this. But > > if the developpers would have a reason to leave it out they would > > do that. The final contents of the distribution was always the > > developper's call. > > Which in a democratic system, such as supposedly we are in here, can > be called to question, just as you and I call each other to question > in this diatribe. There is nothing wrong with calling a Mandrake > decision out on the mat, as I do here, since they put their pants on > every day just like I do, and the bathroom probably stinks when they > get through with it, just like everybody else. We are not in a democratic system here. We are in MandrakeSoft's system and they are free to do what they want to do. They never said that they will do what the voters suggest, they always stated that it will be what the word implies: a *suggestion*. > Members can demand whatever the hell they want to demand, it's their > right, which they paid for, btw. Now wether Mandrakesoft listens to > them or not, that's the real issue and the real thing that's being > questioned here cause that is what determines the true value of your > club dollars. No. The club is a forum where members have benefits like downloads of apps which are not in the GPL'ed downloads, discounts on products and among other things a voting system which tells the developpers what the community "would like" to have. MandrakeSoft listens to this forum but MandrakeSoft also decides. > Pretty much, but this doesn't address the talking point of using > already compiled wisdom for production of future distros (as opposed > to tossing it out the door), which was the original point here. Sometimes it is the way of all things to make room for different (better or not) things. Old wisdom. > Agreed to all you said; what's missing is the wants and desires of > the users. Without those being addressed you have stymied > enthusiasm, disgruntled attitudes, and a general feeling of malaise > with regard to the distro, when you could as easily be generating > good will by letting the paying members know (with tangible results) > that their statements and votes count. True and also old wisdom. > Recent events have been a departure from that > as users have let the company know more directly what they want (to > no effect). Paying users talking directly to the company should be > considered a blessing and an asset, not an inconvenience. This > distinction will be the true measure of wether they stay in business > or not. The voting system has produced a release which is by now called the most successful release in MandrakeSoft's history. Is that a sign of regarding the user's needs an inconvenience? > Because it is the *members* that are giving their time and money to > the product in order to support the company, and it is the members > who will tell others wether their votes count or not, and therefore > it is the members who will ultimately decide wether more members > should join the club or not. Consequently there is a direct > relationship to the relevance of the polls to the profitability of > the Mandrakeclub. So when a major front page poll goes a certain > way, it should be addressed IMMEDIATELY by the developers in order to > demonstrate RELEVANCE of the members and their monetary > contributions. The developpers did address the issue immediately and decided to have their way. > Otherwise, there *is no* relevance and thus questionable purpose in > membership. Hmm, this leads me to the impression that your only reason to join the club was the ability to vote on Mandrake's distro contents. If so, you are right. Then all you can do is enjoy the remaining benefits until your membership runs out and then forget about it. Sometimes the question arises in the newsgroup whether to join the club or not. I'm happy that there are more YEAHs than NAYs to that. But it is very rare that somebody gives the voting system as reason for joining. This does not relate to your "*is no* relevance in membership". > I attempted to understand what you said; however I have never > mentioned the word "unprofessional" ever as far as I know. I have You have written that 9.1 was rolled out by understaffed company and you related that to the unstability. If a company does that they are acting unprofessional. You did not say it but what you wrote implied it. If I have misunderstood then I beg your pardon. > If you are using a production distro for productivity and work, > migration IMO is probably not the best move right now. It is never a good move to migrate a working production system without pressing reasons. > On the other > hand, if you have time to experiment and are just curious, I think it > should be done. A majority of users fall into the latter category > anyway. We were talking about desktop users who will like the new features like KDE3.1, the much better look and also Apache2 and all other new versions of apps. > Bugzilla was your suggestion for production bug reports. File 13 is > the trash can. ;) > > It's probably just a puritanical American thing. <g> I did not know that. You see, I don't know anything about Bugzilla, mentioning it was a mistake. Now I learned something. wobo -- Public GnuPG key available at http://www.wolf-b.de/misc
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