Behavior makes me cry

[Niklas Bolmdahl]

Jens Franik skrev:
> Guten Tag John Bailey,
>
> am Samstag, 8. März 2008 um 01:25 schrieben Sie:
>
>   
>> As the ones actually writing the code, that is our right.  Someone recently said
>> in #pidgin, "he who codes, decides."  In this case, it is very much true.
>>     
>
> You are right, but one of the Developers recently said here: "what's a
> software without users?". I don't want to push you to change your way
> you think, but, maybe you take yourself some time and think about, why
> you code and what is you feedback and rewarding for this. I think the
> way could be a compromise between, even this might be more complicated.
> If you code for yourself and don't care about anything else, you should
> maybe offer it as closed source and point out, that this software is
> published "as is" and will not be modified in any way, but probably
> this really is not what you decide to do...(?)
>
>   
I think you've gotten it backwards there. Open source isn't about 
letting the users decide about how the original developers should code, 
but instead it's about giving the users the possibility to code it 
differently themselves.

It's more about personal choices, not communal. I, for instance need 
better MSN-support than Pidgin offers right now, so I'm waiting on this 
list to see what happens, and in the meantime I use aMSN. At other 
times, I've compiled my own custom builds of Pidgin or used development 
versions. The ability to make personal choices and to make a difference 
with your own efforts is what defines the Open Source movement, not the 
ability to sway the developers to your cause.