[KDE/Mac] Re: KDE vs Macports (Was: trouble with snow leopard)

[Mike McQuaid]

On 4 January 2011 13:33, Steven Britton <stevencbritton at gmail.com> wrote:
> The fact is that the moment something becomes publicly availably, be
> it alpha, beta, gamma, omega, whatever, segments of the public are
> going to begin using it, especially when the product is a dependency
> for  something else.

Yep, that's fair enough but I think developers have a different
approach to users support questions and bugfixing when software is in
these stages.

> I came to KDE because I found KdenLive, a nice video editing package
> which, until KDE version 4.5.4 came out, worked very well.  4.5.4 has
> broken, from what I can see in the MacPorts bug tracker, every
> KDE-dependent package out there.  This is a serious issue.  That is
> why I am now here, subscribing to this list, and also why I am trying
> to squeeze in a few minutes each day manually reinstalling 4.5.3.

As neither a Macports developer or user I'm sorry this situation
exists but I'd rather avoid trying to fix these issue. For what it's
worth, I'm trying to improve the patch situation so Homebrew's KDE
works better and (eventually) get us some native KDE/Mac packages.

> I have asked about this in multiple places, and no one seems to know
> anything - or care enough to actually respond - which, from an
> "end-user's" perspective, extremely disappointing and frustrating.
> People want to attract devs, and that's all fine and good, but without
> "end-users", the dev work becomes rather pointless beyond development
> for the sake of development - "because I can."

Not if the developers use the software too and not if they're trying
to improve it before announcing to end users.

> If the issue posed by an "end user" is a simple one, a simple answer
> will suffice.  I don't think that people who knowingly install a free,
> open-source package expect paid-software level support, or a feeding
> frenzy on every minor bug in the system; many times, a friendly nudge
> in the right direction is all that is needed.
>
> My point? This may be a dev community, but don't write off the end users.

The problem is when mailing lists become too high traffic with support
issues with discourages development conversation or subscription.
-- 
Mike McQuaid
http://mikemcquaid.com