[mythtv-users] Why Free Software has poor usability ?

Raphael rpooser at gmail.com
Wed Aug 6 02:21:57 UTC 2008


Nick Rout wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 5:04 AM, Udo van den Heuvel <udovdh at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> Nick Rout wrote:
>>>> Even when we reproduce the 'MythTV records but doesn't write mpegs'
>>>> issue the memory consumption goes up steadily.
>>>> I.e.: we see assumed leaks and we see a lack of error checking.
>>>>
>>>> Who is assuming lead in making sure that this piece of free software
>>>> uses part of the resources to make stuff less buggy?
>>> Broken record speaks again. And how is this related to the article,
>>> which cincentrates on usability, ie the user interface design.
>> It was about adding.
>> Not a broken record if stuff would be in process of fixing.
>> I detailled the details. It was about adding to the list.
>> So no complaining about the message, please.
> 
> This is a usability discussion, not a bug track discussion.
> 
>> It is a certain area of problems that would have been fixed by now in
>> some way in commercial software.
> 
> I say what? You must be joking! A problem that no one else can
> replicate? You think you would get ANY response from the average
> commercial software company as a lone user with unusual usage
> complaining about an alleged memory leak? At least you got some
> traction on this list with people trying to help. Most commercial
> software companies wouldn't even have responded in my experience. But
> anyway this is OT this discussion.
> _______________________________________________

Not in my experience. I've had software companies actually help my debug 
my own code before, after I assumed the bug lied in their own work. 
Didn't have to do it, but they did anyway. I was just one guy, no one 
else was reporting the same problem.
Sure I agree many software companies will just take your money and leave 
you high and dry. But not all are like that. Also just because something 
is FOSS doesn't suddenly mean the support is going to lightyears better 
than anything else. There are also usergroups for people who use 
commercial software that help each other just as we do. Their capacity 
is somewhat diminished by the lack of anyone on the list who actually 
has access to the source code directly. Nonetheless, I find it odd that 
people seem to assume as soon as you're not using FOSS anymore, there is 
no such thing as a community of people who are willing to help each 
other....


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