[ale] Are the kernel developers a-holes? (was: Debian fork thoughts?)

[Todor Fassl]

On 12/03/2014 09:12 AM, leam hall wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 10:01 AM, Solomon Peachy <pizza at shaftnet.org> wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 03, 2014 at 09:51:53AM -0500, leam hall wrote:
>>> Nothing I've heard about systemd makes me think it's an improvement
>>> for the standard server. Nothing I've heard about the originator
>>> changes that opinion.
>>
>> I'm sorry, what do you mean by "the originator?"
>
>  From the wikipedia article:
>
> "Poettering complained that the "Open source community is full of
> assholes, and I probably more than most others am one of their most
> favourite targets." Poettering went on to blame Linus Torvalds and
> other kernel developers for the state of the community."

I can see why someone would say that. Just to get on the kernel 
developers email list is a dick size war. I have a friend who believes 
nobody ever does anything just to be nice. If someone does anything 
nice, it's really just to get laid. I always tell him he's projecting. 
But the open source community almost makes me think he's right.

I'm blind and I'm deeply involved in the blind technology community. 
Every few months, some blind person or group of blind people comes out 
with yet another distro for the blind.  It lasts anywhere from a month 
to a year and then it's gone. Or else they come out with a web site with 
a wiki, downloads, etc, for  blind sys admins. Never mind that there is 
already 6 or 7 of them out there begging for help.

I think people are simply looking at this wrong. Just being a talented 
programmer does not mean you can make a difference. Too many people say, 
"Well, I wrote this for myself and if other people can use it, great. 
But don't expect me to lift a finger to make it work for you." You might 
as well be playing with yourself. If you really want to show how big 
your dick is, you have to make your stuff work for others.

When my buddy and I are arguing about what it means to be "nice", I am 
not claiming that some people are just nice.  I am claiming that some 
people are nice because it makes them feel good. I think too many open 
source developers take a short sighted approach to being nice. In the 
end, they are not going to get anything out of it. They're not going to 
get any satisfaction because nobody is going to use their stuff and if 
anything, they are going to gain a reputation for being an a-hole.