Re: [chat] Re: [SLUG] Benefits of source distro(Gentoo)somewhatelusive :-)

[mkraus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Just a POV that's being overlooked...

However a person plays and uses their Linux distribution is up to them - every single user contributes to the community simply by being a user and contributing to the size of the user-base.

Is it really worth our while arguing that such-and-such group do or don't contribute...  Isn't the ownership more on how the individual participates, and those choices are left up to them? Why spend the emotional energy getting upset at someone else just because they won't behave in the way you want them to?

FWIW, I think there's been some over-reacting on all sides...

Warmest regards

Mike
---
Michael S. E. Kraus
Network Administrator
Capital Holdings Group (NSW) Pty Ltd
p: (02) 9955 8000

invisible ink <jdub@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent by: slug-chat-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx 06/08/2003 10:54 AM

To:        slug-chat@xxxxxxxxxxx         cc:                 Subject:        Re: [chat] Re: [SLUG] Benefits of source        distro(Gentoo)somewhatelusive :-)

Stuart Guthrie:

> There is plenty of room for tweaters of all levels in open source
> software.
> 
> I completely disagree with your somewhat lofty view of who contributes and
> how important it is. Maybe compiler tweaking is where this Ulrich (to drop
> a name) guy started.

Well, despite the general good humour of this thread until very recent
posts, there are some serious and not so serious points to be made. Yes,
playing with compiler parameters is fun, but it's not a 'contribution', and
there's very little technical merit involved.

It's worth pointing this out to potential contributors (if they're willing
to accept it), so they don't waste their time being fascinated with stuff
that largely doesn't matter. Perhaps, if Ulrich (who is largely a glibc
hacker) started out on the wrong foot, he wouldn't have had the interest or
inspiration to gain the deeper knowledge required to do something truly
worthwhile.

So, perhaps Ben didn't catch the jokes or intentions behind my posts, and
that's disappointing, because it gets people's hackles up. But regardless of
his interest in compiler optimisations or displeasure in my emails, I hope
he does go off and look into this more deeply. Even if I've ticked him off,
he's learnt something.

It's not like I'm providing further information with intent to harm... :-)

Everyone learns from the SLUG cluebat, because we're all interested / good
at different things. It's good stuff.

- ii

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