On Mar 9, 2008, at 12:39 PM, Zeffie wrote:
>> to elevate your own contributions to the BlueQuartz SVN. Which are
>> like ...
>> zero? Correct me please if I'm wrong on that.
>
> that dosen't make any sense.. I can't "elevate" something that
> dosen't exist... but face the fact that you guys are just waiting
> on code to be written for you and your bussinesses where you have
> products to sell. You have a vested interest in this.. I don't...
> I have a little website and a bunch of yum repos that only my
> customers are using and I'm thinking now I just might make the
> whole thing free.
Would this be going better for all if the list of "free" add-ons/
fixes you have put together in the last 2+ months be in the SVN, not
just free standalones from your site? That's how I read the
"elevate", anyway. That way all general users and customers of all
would have assurance that everything will work and play well
together, and everyone can be contributing so that all benefit in the
end rather than both efforts and the end product duplicate or
fragment. I don't begrudge anyone the right to have a product, and
it's best for all for their to be multiple purchase options- but
improvements to base that aren't being synch'd to the shared codebase
in the customary manner can end up a big pain for all, and lead to
this type of thread.
For me, I work for a company that puts a GUI on things that customers
could often do on their own (nothing in this business space),
although our stuff makes a really complete end-result and has many
working full-time to keep it going (and growing), which wouldn't
happen if our customers were rolling-their-own underpinnings on top
of running all their "real" business concerns. There are always
reasons that there will be customers for this kind of thing: lack
of / no interest in the skillset needed to work on the underpinnings,
no time to work on the underpinnings as that isn't their main
business, and if their business is going well it's faster and cheaper
in the end just to purchase it- costs can be passed along and in the
end no one minds, esp. for many repackaged OSS solutions where cost/
benefits ratio is high.
I think the this debate over methods etc. would come across
differently if everyone involved were/ were able to contribute to the
shared codebase-- and I don't see anything you specifically are
making available separately that anyone else is charging for, but I
haven't looked much. Fixes/updates are always fun, but I personally
feel they would work best if they were in a form to be included into
the shared codebase-- that helps the project and likely this type of
thread on multiple levels.
Can you do this for your work you have done on the shared codebase,
and do you think it would help? Given how this thread started, and
how it has gone, to me as an observer it seems that yes, it would
help, and make best use of the time that you are spending, both for
you and for your customers, and the project as a whole- which is
again, in everybody's interest at every level.
B