Glen Barber wrote:
On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 5:03 AM, Wojciech Puchar <woj...@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> wrote:You remind me of a tech I once worked with who thought all customers were stupid. Maybe they were...the difference is that FreeBSD is free software.or is not?How is that relevant?
The tech was being paid to do a job, so he really was contractually obliged to be nice to the customers. FreeBSD isn't under any sort of obligation, contractual or otherwise to do anything. Well, apart from the exceptions where developers have been hired or given grants to implement bits of functionality, or companies have decided to task their employees with developing FreeBSD drivers[*]. Even so, while the obligation of any individual may not be directly to the FreeBSD project itself, the result is effectively just that. Not to mention the moral obligation that developers accept to debug and maintain the code that they give to the project. Sure, no one can demand that a developer drop everything and /fix/ /this/ /now/ but most developers, most of the time, will respond extremely quickly to well-formed bug reports concerning their areas of interest. The difference is the degree and nature of the motivation to work on FreeBSD related things. Ideally developers are self-motivated. They do it because they want to, not because they have to or because they won't get paid if they don't[+]. It's not an entirely black and white distinction -- after all, employees aren't slaves. If they really can't stand being nice to the idiotcustomers, they always have the option of seeking alternative employment.
Cheers,
Matthew
[*] I'm thinking of the Intel NICs that Jack Vogel maintains in particular
here.
[+] Although being paid to do what you would be doing anyhow is always nice.
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard
Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
