A few words about the Quality of KDE 4.2

[Brendan]

> > KDE is great software.
>
> I said that it would be great software if it worked.  But, the current
> release has an unstable  desktop with serious usability issues.  When
> you say that that is great, you become part of the problem.

To you, perhaps. For me, 4.2.1 runs for two weeks or so between reboots on two 
machines that see INSANE usage daily. I mean, you cannot fathom how hard I use 
these boxes. I wonder what it is about your setup that makes it so unstable.

> > The way to fix the bugs in OSS is to get people to work on things
> > they don't want to and aren't sexy...like bugs.
>
> In what aberrant universe buggy software sexy?  I don't think that most
> users find buggy software to be sexy.  Quality is one of the great
> advantages we should have over commercial software.

Hmmmm, you misunderstood. Developers do not usually consider FIXING bugs to be 
sexy, so they don't work on them. They tend to like to work on new features, 
not bugs. This is why companies often hire developers to solely work on bugs, 
since if given a choice, most developers will work on new features.

> > If you can't, you hire people to do the un-sexy work. Since KDE can't
> > do that, the situation will remain as it is, I would imagine.
>
> I guess that I will have to get into Skinnerian psychology.  People
> aren't really as complicated as you think.  People will do what they
> receive positive reinforcement for doing.  Actually, I would like to
> think that it is a question of personal responsibility -- if developers
> have a strong sense of personal responsibility, then they feel the need
> to have their code work 100% correctly.  But, this isn't really the
> case.  If developers receive positive reinforcement for witting
> glamorous apps that are 70% to 90% functional, then that is what is
> going to continue to happen.  Paying people is just a type of positive
> reinforcement, so what is needed is to change the contingencies of
> non-financial reinforcement.
>
> Perhaps we need more perfectionists (but they will not get along easily
> with non-perfectionists).  Or, as I said, people with a strong sense of
> personal responsibility that feel that their software isn't finished
> till it works correctly.  We have some of these people and I admire
> their work as well as their work ethic.  In either case, we need more
> people, but how are we going to integrate these new people into a
> culture where sloppy work is not only tolerated by actually praised?

Don't know about all this. I will stick strictly to a belief that the 
situation will not change much.
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