Thomas Adam wrote:
On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:54:25AM +0100, Michael Großer wrote:
Dan Espen wrote:
msib...@crosswire.com writes:
Perhaps I'm making a bad
assumption. Is increased usership a goal of the FVWM development team?
Fvwm is for users that want complete control of their desktop with
minimal resource use and ultimate flexibility.
http://www.fvwm.org; should contain a link target group to a page
with such kind of definition.
God no. FVWM is not elitist. People will either use it, or not. People
can have ideas, and do. People will have opinions and share them. Or not.
But if/when they do, we'll discuss them, and sometimes good things come of
them.
This isn't endemic to this project, and other projects have many more
opinions floating around. Just look at OpenBSD for that.
-- Thomas Adam
Initially, I didn't intend to speak verbosely to explain strategic way of
thinking.
But, now there seem to be at least two people who misread my thoughts.
Let me explain:
I simply define a target group as a group of people who all have the same
class of wants (the same wishes, the same issues and the same desires).
This is not elitist. A target group can also be a group of people who belong to
the underclass according to my definition, and an underclass surely can't be
considered as an elite.
Elite and target group are defined that differently.
Take my example: I want my computer to be powerful. Since 1992/1993
I wanted complete control of each computer I owned. I expect my
computers to be powerful, efficient and quick. With these demands,
I have some kind of interest profile. Together with other people who
share the same interest profile, I constitute a target group.
The homepage of www.fvwm.org starts with this sentence:
FVWM is an extremely powerful ICCCM-compliant multiple
virtual desktop window manager for the X Window system.
When I read this, then I think: Extremely powerful? Yes, this
is what I'm looking for! Multiple virtual desktops? Hey! This
is the whole idea what makes a computer useable for me!
But, people who don't open the first page of www.fvwm.org
know nothing of this. When I mention FVWM somewhere, people
say: FVWM? Is this the old window manager that nobody uses
anymore?
I think, this is the wrong message! The association in the heads
of people out there shouldn't be that nobody uses anymore? but
rather the window manager that people prefer who are looking for
power rather than for gimmicks.
Here,
http://www.jumping-blue-turtle.com/online-shop/0005_lenny/debian/fvwm/index.html
I tried to explain (in my native language) why FVWM is better
than other solutions:
- FVWM is fast
- other solutions are heavyweight and unnecessarily plump
- FVWM is powerful
- other solutions are castrated (restricted) and close-minded
- FVWM is functional
- other solutions aim for gimmicks and optical dalliance
- FVWM is for working people
- other solutions frustrate
- FVWM can be downright programmed
- other solutions can't be used without a mouse
People who agree with all the statements in that table
constitue the target group of that web page. People
who do not agree simply belong to other target groups.
The only drawbacks of that page are that it is in German
and that I want money there. Both aspects will change
later.
If the FVWM community would manage the trick to bring
the message FVWM is for people who are looking for
power even into the heads of non-FVWM users, then all
the people who indeed are looking for these qualities
would take notice of FVWM, and this would bring the
FVWM community a new kind of momentum.
This is a simple message: The more clearly the FVWM
project communicates these values the more people who
actually share these values will be attracted by this
project.
OK, I really spoke verbosely now. I hope, somebody
will understand this idea better than before.
I don't want to bother you any further with that if
nobody is interested. Just seize this idea or forget it.
- Michael -
