Re: [Anygui-devel] Disgruntled would-be user
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From: Magnus L. H. <ma...@he...> - 2004-04-10 00:05:17
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Terry Hancock <ha...@an...>: > > On Friday 09 April 2004 04:33 pm, Laura Creighton wrote: > > From: terry <she...@ci...> > > >To: mag...@he... > > >Subject: Anygui > > >Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 23:56:58 -0400 > > > > > >So Magnus, did Anygui serve the Linux community in any way or was it > > >simply a self-serving effort to enhance your book/thesis? > > > How most 'american' is this whining. > > Hey! Does this have to get nationalist? *I* don't think either > behavior would be particularly "American". :-/ I'm sure Laura was just showing how meaningless the original characterization was -- or something...? (But then again, who knows ;) Related stereotypes, and all that... > I know my country hasn't exactly been "winning friends and > influencing people" lately, but really. Sure. BTW, my new (and probably temporary ;) signature has nothing to do with this -- I just heard Burns say this on The Simpsons, and found the quote priceless :-] > I'm sorry you get mail like that, Magnus -- I hope it doesn't > discourage you. Sadly, it does. Very much. But hopefully, only temporarily. (As some of you may have noticed, I've actually managed to get out another release of Atox today, so...) > It's really stupid that people think they have a right to benefit > from others' free labor -- so much that they can insult and abuse > people if they don't see the end result. Yeah. But on the other hand, I think it's useful to be aware of the dangers of being too overconfident when starting a project too -- that is, the danger of misleading people. Giving the impression that a project is more solid or mature than it really is. Taking it slow and whatnot. On the other hand: I remember that when I got a Unix (and -- indirectly -- Internet) account at my university, I actually had to read some netiquette documents and signt a paper to the effect that I had read them (such as the Shapiro paper mentioned on my Netiquette page [1] -- I wish more people would at least glance at this sort of thing). IIRC there were some admonitions in there (or maybe I picked that up later, somewhere) to not assume that anyone owed you anything. I guess believing this (the "freerider spirit") is quite an easy trap. > And if anigui hasn't come together fast enough, it's as much because > of those of us who are being lame-assed slow about doing our bit. Heh. I think there are several reasons. Here are two I think have been quite important: 1. The Second System Illness. Pretty standard, I guess. Being too ambitious after learning ones lessons from the first incarnation. If we had been less ambitious, or somehow been able to do the rewrite/refactoring stepwise, keeping a working system all the way, we might have had a working second release before enthusiasm petered out. Then it would have been easier to maintain the system (and maybe the enthusiasm?) 2. The lack of easy/automated testing. This would have let each one of us do much more work, and, more importantly, to do more work on our own. For example, the main reason I haven't just hunted down all the bugs I could find and released 0.2 is that testing all back-ends on multiple platforms is more than a handful for a single person. Both useful lessons. Not sure exactly how we could have gotten around the testing bit, though. > For which I apologize, BTW. :blush: :) If you're anything like me, deadlines and nagging may be necessary, at least for the more boring parts (that also have to be done). Because of my focus on my Ph.D thesis, I haven't been able to do that (*or* do any serious development of my own). > Did you actually know this guy? Or was this just a random troll? Just a random troll, out of the blue. > Also -- I always assumed Magnus was European. *Is* he American? I'm Norwegian, actually. (And I don't drink -- so the stuff about enjoying my brew by the canals didn't really fit too well either... Oh, well. We do have a river near where I live, and I'm sure there are non-alcoholic brews I can enjoy. :) > Cheers, > Terry [1] http://hetland.org/netiquette -- Magnus Lie Hetland "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay http://hetland.org to live in the land of the free." -- C. M. Burns |