Re: Kickstarter was not successful... but it did help things...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

Doc O'Leary wrote:
> In article <mailman.9717.1387501539.10748.discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>,
>   Ivan Vuãica <ivucica@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I personally would love to bring about a simple desktop environment built
> > around GNUstep, so that I can "dogfood" GNUstep. Currently, I cannot be
> > efficient in a WindowMaker+GWorkspace-based environment; I'm simply missing
> > too many things or too many little things annoy me.
> I fully agree with the need, but from a "leadership" perspective I still
> don't know that that is a goal GNUstep sees for itself.  Put another
> way, it was said that GNUstep has 2 types of users and 2 types of
> developers.  They were never explained, so I still have absolutely no
> idea what those types are.  Point being, *is* a desktop environment the
> kind of dogfood that is a priority at this point, or is some other
> "type" of need going to provide the most bang for the buck?  This is why
> I think it is so important to have the big picture all figured out
> first.  Profile before you optimize.
I am not optimizing. I am working, quite relentelss in the past 10+ 
years and especially the last 8 on what I want with and out of GNUstep. 
Somebody will agree with me, somebody not. Somebody may find my work 
useful, somebody not.

The different kind of users and developers were discussed again and 
again. It would be perhaps useful to put them on the website or the wiki 
as a guide, but their description should be worded in a positive way.

The point, however, is if somebody told me not to do what I am doing for 
and with GNUstep but gave me different goals, would I still work in the 
same insane manner on GNUstep, GAP and friends? Most probably not. The 
only way would be he motivating me of something new which I would find 
even more interesting and worth dedicating myself to. This is 
essentially a matter of passion.

I have a couple of things (not more than half a dozen) of bugs and 
improvements which would, in my opinion, make GNUstep much better, more 
useful. However I am unable to do them myself. I may asked others for 
help, but since other persons don't believe they are important as I do, 
they haven't worked on it in the past months and years.

I believe that even if Gregory would state "they are important" interest 
wouldn't increase, otherwise they would have been done before. At the 
end there are only three options
1) find the way doing them myself
2) motivate somebody
3) pay somebody

3) is at the end a special case of 2). I even tried motivation through 
gifts, but it is not enough :)

I believe that among the different GS goals, a lot of problems are 
common and lot of improvements would benefit everybody or, at least, do 
not hurt anybody.

Translating from Italian: Let's roll up the sleeves, not pontificate.

Riccardo