[mythtv-users] RANT: MythTV has a *horrible* end user experience.

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/25/2008 08:49 PM, Sarah Hayes wrote:
> Whatever your attitude towards end users is, your going to see more 
> people appearing stating "this bit of Myth needs work" that's what 
> happens when a piece of software goes mainstream.  Unfortunately the 
> vast majority of those people either a) can't program

And if that's the case, I can understand their asking for help.  If what
they ask interests me in some way, I may even be willing to do the code
for them (time permitting).

>  or b) don't want 
> to do their day job at home.

Hmmm.  Isn't that saying that these professional programmers who don't
want to do their day job at home are just simply expecting the MythTV
devs to code things to their liking out of pure laziness?  Or perhaps
they feel their time is more valuable than that of the MythTV devs. 
Perhaps it's something I haven't considered, and if so, I'd love to
learn what that is so I can better understand the attitude.  IMHO,
anyone with programming skills who uses FOSS has two options: 1) learn
to live with the things they don't like about the software or 2) fix it
themselves.  There is no "3) complain until someone fixes it for them." 
Note that 2) may actually be, 2) solicit feedback for a proposed
approach--with explicit mention of your willingness to do the work--and
then fix it themselves, but this differs from "complain until..."

>   Simply writing off their suggestions 
> because of that smacks of an elitist attitude.
>   

Call me elitist, but I'll gladly write off suggestions from any of the
b) users who don't seem to be actively contributing to open source
projects somewhere.  (Not accusing anyone of falling into this category,
but just making a general statement.)

> And yes, I can program C++ thank you very much.

Put up...  Nevermind. ;)

Mike

(I am not a MythTV dev.  Please do not take my comments to be indicative
of the opinions of the MythTV devs or the MythTV project.  Though I am
not a dev, I do greatly respect the MythTV devs for volunteering their
time to make a great project that helps a lot of people, and I sincerely
appreciate all the hard work they put into coding/theming/... Myth.  As
I am a programmer, I /never/ expect one of the devs to code things to my
liking.  If I find something I want changed, I fix it myself and submit
a patch for the devs to consider.  If it's applied, I hope others
benefit from it.  If it's not applied, I use it in my own personal
tree--and no longer have any reason to complain about something that's
not to my liking.  I also admit that I'm one of the extremely fortunate
few whose day job is also his favorite form of recreation, so my opinion
may be biased.)