"What is the Fedora Project?"

[Máirín Duffy]

On 10/08/2009 01:53 PM, Mike McGrath wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009, Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
>
>> On 10/08/2009 01:47 PM, Seth Vidal wrote:
>>> Provided that in order to make that "simple" spin you didn't need to
>>> modify or patch ANY packages.
>>
>> Again, I refer to the point I made about usability and
>> new-user-friendlyness not being in any way exclusionary to "experienced
>> users".
>>
>
> Do you really think Fedora's values are everyones values and the only
> problems here are related to QA and usability?

I don't think Fedora's values are everyone's values; far from it. But I 
think there are tons of folks who are not highly technical who share 
those values. E.g., I think there are plenty of non-technical folks who 
would say yes to these question:

* Do you care about sustainable progress in software freedom and innovation?

Think about how in demand the Toyota Prius is. People aren't buying it 
for the low price, and I don't think they are buying it because they are 
car technicians and appreciate its technology. I think they are buying 
it because it promises to support a value of being better to the 
environment. The organic food movement - yes, that apple is more 
expensive, but it's better for me and the environment - people are 
buying more organic produce than ever before. And they're not farmers or 
food scientists or physicians.

I know most people just want their computer to work and beyond that 
could care less what it runs, and Mike that may be your wife and 
parents' case. But I think it is still possible to care about what runs 
on our computers from a values point-of-view, without being fully 
entrenched in the domain / highly technical. I think non-technical folks 
can appreciate the values behind our software and to choose them over 
other, easier alternatives.

A confusion I get from your point about your wife and parents, Mike, is 
that I am assuming they are non-technical, and don't share Fedora's 
values. But I what I'm trying to pose here is that you can be 
non-technical AND share Fedora's values.

The problem is the software isn't designed for non-technical folks in 
mind. And we ask if our non-technical wife or our brother or our 
neighbor share our values, and chances are they don't. Then we make the 
false assumption that it's not worth supporting non-technical users 
because they all don't share our values.

~m