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On 03/17/2013 07:13 AM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
On 3/17/2013 5:25 AM, Professa Dementia wrote:
We are very sorry you are not satisfied with the software. Please feel free to return the software for a full refund of all the money you paid.
This is a formulaic response.
You do not speak on behalf of Dovecot, Timo, this list, and certainly not for me. Do not use "we" in this manner. And there's no reason to be a smart ass.
Right.
Welcome to the world of open source. Software is provided through the generous contributions of many people, all of whom have regular jobs and do this because they enjoy it. With open source, if there is something you do not like, you can change the software to your liking. Try that with proprietary software.
More formulaic response.
The OP is fully familiar with the open source model. Being open source and developed by volunteer effort is NEVER an excuse for crappy software or documentation. The OP has every right, and *duty* to voice his opinion, whether it be praise or critique. Without critique software doesn't get improved.
I don't know if the "[original poster] is fully familiar with the open source model" or not, but I would save the rest of this response as a gem. The formulaic response, which I have seen again and again in the over ten years I've been working with open source software, really assumes that all users are programmers--or should be programmers--and are responsible for submitting fixes when something is wrong.
Because what it really says is, if you don't like it, fix it yourself. Too many times, I've heard this referred to as "freedom." And like some other notions of freedom advanced in our society, it is only freedom for a limited class of people.
There are lots of these kinds of assumptions throughout our society. But the fact is that not all of our talents align in the same directions. That's why we have specialization of labor.
The next logical step in this assumption is that a dissatisfied user should, having become a programmer, fork the project, maintain and develop that fork, and integrate it at least with whatever distribution/variety of UNIX-like operating system s/he is using. Not all of us have time to do this. Again, that's why we have specialization of labor.
<snip> > > The OP's attitude is fine. It is yours that is the problem. > Dissent and critique should be cherished, not attacked. We're not > a bunch of little Fascists walking in lock step under de Fuhrer > Timo, so stop acting like one. > More words to treasure. (Not that Timo envisions himself any kind of Fuehrer.) This reaches to a certain deification of certain individuals and organizations in the community--whether they themselves would be deified or not; I know examples of both--that really ought to be looked at more critically.
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