On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Raj Mathur <r...@linux-delhi.org> wrote:
On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 2:45 PM, Anurag <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 1:18 AM, Nalin Savara <nsn...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > @BOSS Team, NRC FOSS people etc: > > GREAT JOB GUYS!!! > <snip> @Raj, Anurag (Karan apart from unicast mail to you, see point (3) below): Guys... perhaps my choice of words and description of details in earlier mail could have been better. But it's ok-- I dont mind the sarcasm-- since I have a valid point (based on facts not opinion)-- and seeing a message touching a raw nerve gives me a chance to refine and articulate my own thoughts better. I had been exposed to more specific overtures of Microsoft to policy makers etc-- and that scares me and pushes me to contribute and/or actually encourage people who are contributing to FOSS in india. ---- Please find below my kind comments:-- (1) My mail was based on my own career and product development experience-- that products always take longer than expected to develop--- and if one starts looking at weaknesses/non-compliances/faults too early--- the development may never reach critical speed OR critical mass-- and may drag on forever. It is a well studied phenomena among product develop professionals in various fields called-- that if you dont have any prototype OR feature complete product early (no matter how buggy)--- then chances are it is going to take a order of magnitude more time to converge upon a stable and usable final shippable product. IMHO, this applies to Linux distros also. >From that point of view, the only point I tried to make was "contribute rather than criticize". Because arguments like "if they dont have xxx then they are non-compliant"-- while good for debates dont actually contribute to a better BOSS Linux. (2)On this list & in free software community:: The main grouse earlier with BOSS linux was that it's source code was not freely downloadable-- and the BOSS Linux guys were not quick in responding to seemingly valid queries. Now the sources are downloadable-- and they are actually trying to gauge industry applicability of their Linux Distro--- so it is up to us-- to review the quality and to comment on improvements and necessary additions (including if necessary comments from people like us on the bugginess and completeness of their build scripts and toolchains). (3) No offense or insult was intended-- but yes, as I later wrote in a unicast mail to Karan-- microsoft has unlimited millions of dollars to lobby policy makers-- and if we ourselves give them ammunition to attack FOSS in India--- then we should not cry if some minister or secretary level IAS officer decides to "push for low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)" or decides to push for "legal software" (and hence branding BOSS Linux as "not totally legal"). Thanks and Regards, NS ps: yes, and in working on a Open Source project to adapt GNU GCC toolchain for a new platform, even I have faced these comments of "absent build scripts"; "you are not GNU compliant" and "you are crushing innocent flowers by writing code"... but one needs to get past them... just like the BOSS Linux guys need to... _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
