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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Allow money donations for precise bugs
From:       Miles Stevenson <miles () mstevenson ! org>
Date:       2005-03-14 20:37:31
Message-ID: 200503141237.31769.miles () mstevenson ! org
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On Monday 14 March 2005 11:24 am, Maurizio Colucci wrote:
> If they *really* were to go away, they would be a minority of very fanatic,
> or very antidemocratic, or very stupid, people. So, IMHO, it would be
> better to loose them.

Perhaps we should scale down the name calling and attempt a more constructive 
conversation of this issue.

From what I understand, many KDE developers (I am not one of them) are against 
trading money for features/bugfixes because they feel that KDE will become a 
"user-centric" desktop, meaning that they will have to start producing what 
the users want instead of what the developers want.

On the surface, this seems reasonable. It is generally assumed that users 
(meaning users without any software development or design experience) want 
useless features because they don't know what works best, while developers 
want the "right" features, whatever that is.

I think that there are potentially a lot of problems with this assumption. One 
of them would be clumping the majority of KDE users into the same category as 
Windows users as far as computer and software literacy are concerned. I have 
a sneaking suspicion that in reality, the majority of KDE users are in fact 
programmers, designers, engineers, and scientists. After all, Linux still has 
it's reputation as being the OS for geeks instead of the general public.

The other problem I see is an assumption that there is some kind of rift 
between the interests of KDE users and KDE developers as far what KDE should 
be. I just don't see that. In fact, I think most KDE users are attracted to 
KDE because they want the same thing the developers want, a KDE that is 
customizable, integrated, powerful, and flexible. 

If the goal of KDE is to be a digital playground for developers to try new 
things and write whatever they fancy, then that is fine. There is nothing 
wrong with that, and I would be amazed at how nice of a desktop KDE is if 
that were the main goal of the project. 

But if the goal is to be a *viable* alternative to other desktops such as 
Windows, OS X, and Gnome (meaning desktop users would prefer KDE over other 
desktops),  then a developer-centric model doesn't make sense. It is 
illogical to compete with other desktops by ignoring the interests of your 
users. 

Furthermore, I don't think the proponents of a donation system (myself 
included) want to take away developer freedom, or even make donation money 
the only motivation for KDE developers. I believe the idea is to give users 
the ability to proposition a developer and say "Hey, I'd really like to see 
this feature. If you want to make an extra $50 tonight instead of going to 
the movies, then I'm willing to pay you." There is no freedom being taken 
away from a developer here. If said developer would rather work on something 
of his own instead of getting paid to work on something else, then he is not 
being denied the freedom to do so.

The very simple fact, is that giving developers the *choice* to work on what 
they want, or to get paid and work on what someone else wants, does not take 
away any freedom. Giving a developer more choice in no way disrupts their 
freedom. 

Saying that "There exists freedoms which are removing or reducing other 
freedoms. And this definitely is one of them. [sic]" might sound like some 
kind of mystical wisdom, but just doesn't make any reasonable sense. 

I submit that we should at least use reason here and recognize that giving 
additional opportunities for KDE developers to get paid for writing code 
doesn't "remove" or "reduce" the freedom for developers to not take part in 
it in any way, shape, or form. 

-- 
Miles Stevenson
Email: miles@mstevenson.org
URL: http://www.mstevenson.org
PGP/GPG Key ID: 329F889D767D2F63
 
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