Where Fedora Went Wrong (nice conclusion)

Matej Cepl mcepl at redhat.com
Thu May 17 22:03:03 UTC 2007


On 2007-05-17, 17:08 GMT, Ric Moore wrote:
> It could happen that there are users that have no business 
> messing with anything and we'd all be properly grateful that 
> they don't. <g> But a "should" puts the onus of active 
> participation on them and then they do. Which results in 
> a batch of emails to the list to remedy a blown up system.  
> THEN, after much grief for everyone, they leave to freshly
> install Ubuntu or SuSe and claim it is SO much better, as it "works",
> out of the box. Sure it does, they haven't screwed with it yet.

I still think they SHOULD help, but note that I have put there 
money as an option how to help. As one of my American friends 
said ``With the invention of money, phrase `Thank you' lost its 
meaning.'' ;-)

> Plus, a newbie needs to have the space to actually use and 
> become familiar with Linux, before anyone can expect them to 
> actually be grateful for anything and appreciate it. I think it 
> would be better to leave the moral "shoulds" at the door. So, 
> Mauriat might have been asking "Must I?" in a completely 
> different light, as I have outlined. The basic "morality play" 
> of the Linux Religion becomes more apparent with exposure and 
> use. :)

Of course, and I forgot that this is the list where even not-Red 
Hat employess and somebody else than hard-code Linux geeks could 
happen. No, I mean there is of course almost unlimited tolerance 
for people to learn, and yes this whole stuff is free and there 
are really no strings attached. Visible or invisible. Just go, 
use it and have a fun.

However, there is somewhere in the back of my mind that ``Freely 
you have received, freely give.'' (Matthew 10:8) I mean, I don't 
except from anybody to help, they are under no obligation 
whatsoever (neither legal nor moral) to do anything, but for me 
this verse was one of the reasons why I spend so much time on 
helping Linux community in past ten years.

Just my 0.02 CZK ;-)

Matej




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