On Mon, 2005-06-06 at 19:55 -0400, Aron Griffis wrote:
> This is kinda bloggish, because it's basically a transcription of an
> IRC monologue.  My apologies if it's hard to follow...  Nonetheless,
> I'm interested in how other developers feel on the topics I bring up
> below.

<snip>

> Also I find it amusing when people say that Gentoo exists for the
> users.  I think that is wrong.  Gentoo exists for the *developers*.

This is the reason why *I* use/develop Gentoo.  I love it.  I could care
less if every single user we have drops us for Ubuntu.  I would still
develop Gentoo so long as it is still fun.

> It's our playground, and it's the reason we use a live tree rather
> than switching to an actually sane approach.  The users are cool
> because they point out bugs, help solve problems on bugzilla, suggest
> enhancements, provide patches, and notify us of package updates.
> Sometimes they become developers.  But the truth is that Gentoo sees
> improvement and maintenance in the areas that appeal to the
> developers.  And that is why Gentoo exists for the developers first,
> the users second.

<starts slow clap>

Well, Aron, I honestly think that you've hit the nail on the head.  I
never have been able to grasp how people could think Gentoo could ever
become a serious player in the corporate world of suits and guys with
nice hair and fake white teeth.  Do we really want to go there?  Do we
really need to start sending out assclowns in suits to shake hands with
a bunch of clueless corporate types, then schmooze them over golf just
to get people to use Gentoo?  What ever happened to "because it's
friggin' cool"?

Don't get me wrong, I love our users.  That being said, I work on Gentoo
not because of them, but because of *myself* and *my* personal itches.
It just so happens that there's a group of guys out there that seem to
want similar things, so we've banded together as this loose group of
developers, determined to make the best damn Linux *for us* that we can.
If suits want to use it, great!  If not, well, they weren't paying the
bills anyway, so frag 'em!  *grin*

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead/QA Manager
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux

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