Hallo, Kyle Klipowicz hat gesagt: // Kyle Klipowicz wrote:
And this is precisely the unfortunate reason why the open source world will (almost) always lag behind the commercial world of consumer software. When developers make their bread and butter based upon if the consumer buys, they're more likely to pay attention to and implement the wishes of their users. Take Ableton. They actively parse their online forums for feature requests...and then implement them when a critical mass is reached.
There are some exceptions in the FOSS world. Ubuntu is quite user friendly (with the support of a large endowment from a very wealthy organization with a charter specifically devoted to bringing Linux to the non-programmer set of the world). Firefox is giving IE a run for it's money (although the primary codebase from FF comes from the old commercial, closed source Netscape).
Ubuntu, while open source, is a commercial product. Like Redhat Linux and many other commercial FLOSS products. For these kinds of open source software, money of course is one motivation, and if that money comes directly from the user, the user's wishes are a influencing the software more directly. Money is not a bad motivator, and it's even playing a role in our little Pd world, where some projects are or have been funded (like IIRC the early work by Hans on pd-extended, or many docs, which were made for paid workshops etc.)
Ciao
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__