On 2 Feb 2001, at 21:37, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 01, 2001 at 03:23:42PM -0800, Scott C. Best scribbled:
> > Okay, sure, some of the ICSA guidelines are good ones...though
> > I can't imagine using anything that didn't meet them at the
> > very least.
>
> How about this:
> "Meets ICSA guidelines.*"
> "<fineprint>* == Not ICSA certified</fineprint>"
ICSA might get upset - but in any case, my
understanding is that the Linux 2.2 kernels
would not be able to make it since the
firewalling is not state-ful.
> Okay, here it is:
>
> Why is it that we feel this need to target that demographic?
>
> Why do we even talk about targetting _any_ demographic?
>
> We need to investigate out motives thoroughly, IMO. The point of
> opensource projects is _not_ supposed to be to target a demographic
> or put out a better 'product' than somebody else; rather, what makes
> the opensource world go around is the pursuit of excellence. A good,
> successful opensource project's goal is to make it's work better
> than it already is. Is that what we're going after, or are we going
> after popularity?
What's the difference between excellence and
putting out a product which is better?
To me, what is lacking in lots of Open Source
projects is the idea of answering to the users,
finding out what the users need, and other
similar ideas.
I would suggest the following ideas as part of
any Open Source product:
* What is your target audience? (a/k/a targeted
demographic)
* How can you make your product better (or more
appealing) than others in the market?
* How can you modify your product for your
target audience to make them prefer your product
over someone else's?
For me, many Open Source projects enter into
areas where there is already an established base
for a product, and offer no enhancement to the
original - and thus do not go anywhere at all.
If you offer a replacement to fetchmail, you
better be ready to tell me why I should use your
product instead of fetchmail.... What benefits
do I get? What differentiates your product from
fetchmail? And other such like questions.
If no one uses the product, then the Open Source
project is basically a waste of one's time.
Another good example is LRP and EigerStein and
Oxygen. I don't know Dave's reasoning for
creating LRP, but Materhorn came about as a
Linux 2.2 pre-installed LRP, and also a
different set of kernel modifications.
Oxygen started (at its earliest) as a project to
get rid of lrpkg and replace it with something
easier. Then network tools followed, and
multidisk loading, and security fixes and
updates, and more.
As I work on Oxygen, I continue to think about
the answers to questions like these:
* How do I modify the system to create as few
problems for new users as possible?
* How do I make it easier to use?
* How do I make as similar to the UNIX
environment some experts are familiar with?
* Who is going to use it? How do I make easier
for THEM?
* How do I create a product that someone will
want to use over EigerStein or LRP (both very
fine products with long histories)?
Having mentioned the competition (noun and
verb!) let me say that I still believe in
sharing - competition just gets keener :-)
--
David Douthitt
UNIX Systems Administrator
HP-UX, Linux, Unixware
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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