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

[Adam Williams]

>I believe a survey pegged 70% of OSS/Linux developers don't get a dime
>to develop/support the software they develop -- often meaning they do it
>on the _own_time_ -- even though their employers often benefit from it. 
>Talk about triple ungratefulness!

On the other hand,  that means about 30% do get paid something.  Which
is allot more than some people think.  But I'd wager the ones who get
paid are even *less* likely to spend their time answering "silly"
questions.

>>I'm pretty happy right now.  My largest project, the LDAP presentation, is
>>currently standing at a 9 (positive) to 4 (negative) e-mail ratio. 
>Why "negative"???  Do you mean just "constructive criticism" from "the
>experts" or downright "@$$holes"?

It is an interesting phenomenon that negative messages rarely if ever
contain any useful criticism.  I keep track for my own amusement.  Of
the 9 positive messages, one contained a technical correction from
someone in the OpenLDAP project.  Of the four negative ones: 1 stated I
was a "dumba$$" for publishing the document as PDF when everything could
be done just as well in a text file, 1 stated that I clearly did not
know what I was talking about and my presentation will only serve to
frustrate and confuse people, and the other two were general one-liner
statements about how much the presentation sucks.  I find them rather
amusing,  but one can see how it might plant the seeds for a bitter
attitude toward "users."  On the other hand,  of the nine several heaped
on the praise to the point where they could be considered hymns to my
genius.  It has also resulted in two job offers, and some very
appreciative developers as they have something to throw back at people
with silly questions.  From what I understand this is a pretty typical
"contributor experience".