[KLUG Members] Are "we" sure that SmoothWall is "good"?????

[Bryan J. Smith]

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> A developer is under no *obligation* to offer support for
> his packages.  After all, they cost $0.00.  Especially if
> they make their money supporting a package, they can't
> support if for free sometimes, and charge people other
> times.

Regardless of what you think of Mr. Morrell, many people seem to
forget that they are getting software for free, let alone with the
source code.  SmoothWall is double screwed because it can be used by
people who've barely heard of Linux.  After a week, I couldn't take
the SmoothWall lists.  Why?  Not so much for Mr. Morrell, but for
the people who failed to read the FAQ, asked the same questions over
and over, bitched about "problems" with SmoothWall that were clearly
poor protocol implementations in their closed source Windows
software (that they expected SmoothWall to "automagically handle"),
etc...

I think people forget that.  As far as Mr. Morrell, he's entitled to
his attitudes.  It might keep SmoothWall from getting much funding,
but it doesn't take away from the fact that he and others created it
in the first place.

If you don't like Mr. Morrell, fine.  IPCop has been created and
forked from SmoothWall for that very reason.  So go use IPCop and
take Mr. Morrell out of the equation.  God knows 90% of his
"attitude" has come out of personal issues, death threats and
jerk-off users.  It doesn't excuse it, but it explains some of it.

> I've released a few utilities.  They are much less used
> and significant than something like SmoothWall, but I've
> gotten *LOTS* of outright obvious questions, *demands*
> for features, and countless "your software $uxs" messages.

Which is an easy attitude to get into from a user standpoint.  We
often forget it is the goodwill of developers (regardless of their
personal flaws) that sees software written.  Their software, their
rules.

> So I cut these guys some slack.

Exactomundo.

> One can always use a diffrent firewall (floppyfw, LRP, etc...)

Exactomundo.

I'm personally sickened by the "one-sided reporting" on this whole
Morrell issue.  Some developers just "suck" at PR issues, and I
think Mr. Morrell is hurting his own cause (despite the various
personal circumstances).  But he and his group have released
software that people benefit from.

If you can't say anything good about someone, don't say it.  That
applies to you as well, especially if you haven't done anything for
SmoothWall but use it.

-- Bryan

-- 
Bryan J. Smith, Engineer        mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   
AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.     http://www.linux-wlan.org
SmithConcepts, Inc.          http://www.SmithConcepts.com