On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 9:23 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 8:46 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Or if someone sets it up for him. He is not going to develop inhouse linux expertise just to be able to test this software.
True.
+1 and they should hence be paying for support for that software if they're looking at moving to a FOSS program because it is better. If they're looking at FOSS only as a cost cutting compromise then they're screwed anyway because they've misunderstood the first thing about FOSS -- it is Free as in Freedom (mukt) and not food (muft).
The 'mukti' is from the license and quota raj where the user has to shell out loads of money every year to upgrade his software so that he can continue using it to its desired potential. If it costs him a bigger amount to move to FOSS I doubt if he will go for it. Anyway that is different from testing of FOSS software which is the topic of discussion?
Agreed, mostly. For such a testing effort to happen, there has to be someone who is motivated to initiate the entire thing. It will either be an eager FOSS enthusiast trying to urges his friends/family/relatives (e.g. Suhit with his dad, me with my mom a long time ago) or someone who is looking to get business by supporting that software. That is where the paid bit comes into the picture.
It is a completely different scenario with volunteer developers. You cannot expect a volunteer developer to go out of his way for someone who is willing to test his app without the tester actively trying as well. In fact, it is always someone other than the dev (the tester or someone else) who is coordinating this effort since the developer's interest is mostly technical and his own needs as opposed to someone else's.