RE: Re: [XFree86] Re: Configuring OpenGL support in a new Build of XFree86

On Thu, 1 May 2003, John Kjellman wrote:

>One thing Mike is missing here (or he gets and I am missing).
>(insert sound of me climbing onto my soapbox ;-)  There is the
>possibility that someone's (don't ask me who in the case of
>XFree86 ;-) motivation for producing a feature may just well be
>that they are interested in seeing the XFree86 project succeed.  
>When I say succeed, I am talking about penetrating deeper in
>those areas where XFree86 applies.  Or in other words, gathering
>a larger stronger user base for this type of software.

That depends on each person's individual definition of "success".  
Some people would believe that "success" == "topple Microsoft and 
Apple", while other people would define "success" as being simply 
to produce the best X11 server implementation out there.  Others 
may define success quite differently from that.  There is not any 
one single definition.

Here is the XFree86 project's self declared mission statement:

	http://www.xfree86.org/mission.html

The project is certainly free to set whatever goals that the 
project wants to have, and nobody has any right to impose 
alternate goals on the project.  People can of course contribute 
code, and ideas to try to further their own goal/mission however, 
and hopefully people will do that.  People are also free to 
devise their own "mission" if they wish and set their own goals.  

I certainly support the idea of different people or groups of 
people having differing goals, and I also support the idea of 
multiple groups of people working together collectively to 
further both of their sets of goals.

I just think it is unrealistic to try to impose one person or 
group's personal goals/motivations/mission/whatever upon another 
group of people.

>While I am not a core XFree86 developer, I have worked on my
>fair share of open/closed source projects of similar size and/or
>complexity.  I usually find myself implementing features that I
>am not interested in technically (personally?) because my users
>are.  I take great pride and ownership of code I have produced
>and derive pleasure in knowing that my efforts are being
>utilized by others, sometimes in ways I had not even imagined.

Sure, and you are motivated by doing something that benefits
other people, of which you might not be technically interested in
doing.  There is nothing wrong with that.  It is not reasonable
however to expect or demand that all other developers out there
engage in development in this manner.  People ultimately work on
whatever they feel like working on, and that might even sometimes 
be things they're not personally interested in directly, it might 
be things they know others will be interested in deeply.  As a 
volunteer - each person makes that call for themselves.

That's really my point.  For example, as much as many people 
would like to see the Translucent window extension, and as much 
as I myself would like to see it - there is not even a remote 
chance that I would consider writing a line of code to make it 
exist for real because while I'm interested in seeing it happen - 
I am not personally interested in *making* it happen.  I hope 
someone else does, and I politely wish them well in doing so.  
But just as nobody has the right to demand to me what I do as a 
volunteer in my spare time personally - I don't have the right to 
demand someone else to do the same thing either.  Nobody does.  
That's all I'm trying to say.

>Anyway, I am not trying to argue one point or another here.  To
>me it sounds like most everyone is correct once you peel away
>some of the "bad mojo" (this is not aimed at Mike's comments),
>it just depends upon your perspective.  Open Source software
>(and XFree86 as it stands today) is great and we as a world of
>developers/users need a heck of a lot more of it.  I just wish
>that everyone would take the time and effort required to put
>down their guard and try and see things from someone else's
>perspective.  The results would be rather enlightening (insert
>sound of me falling off my soapbox ;-).

I see things from other people's perspective quite well actually
if you listen to what I'm saying.  I would love to see X11
technology improve and bypass Microsoft/Apple on the desktop, and
I hope it does at some point.  However, that is only going to 
happen if people who want it to happen actually make it happen.  

It is never going to happen, simply because their is a crowd of 
people filling Madison Square Gardens chanting features that will 
rule the world, electric shock whips at the backs of developers.

Let ye who writeth the code, shape the software, and thus the 
future of it.


-- 
Mike A. Harris