"What is the Fedora Project?"

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On 10/08/2009 01:05 PM, Mike McGrath wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009, Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
> 
>> On 10/07/2009 12:11 AM, John Poelstra wrote:
>>>
>>> http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-board-meeting/2009-10-01/fedora-board-meeting.2009-10-01-16.03.log.html
>>>
>>>
>>> At last week's meeting we said we would continue our discussion here.
>>> Here I go :)
>>>
>>> 1) I'm still advocating that it is our responsibility to move things
>>> forward and own these issues.  Are there any board members that
>>> disagree?  Speak now or we will assume you are in agreement. :-)
>>
>> I've been thinking a lot about how I want to respond to this thread.
>> Here are my thoughts:
>>
>> * I am troubled by the subtext of the repeated questioning of "What is
>> Fedora", because I really don't think that is the question that is being
>> asked. Instead, I think the question being asked (or at least, the
>> question being answered) is: "Who is Fedora (the Linux Distribution) for?"
>>
>> If indeed, we are attempting to answer that question, it implies that
>> there are users for whom Fedora is not, and will never be, a good fit.
> 
> My wife and both of my parents answered no to every single question on
> this page:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Is_Fedora_For_Me

Heh. I knew you would choose to respond solely to that item, Mike.

For what it is worth, I disagree with the spirit and wording of that
wiki page. In my mind, it is roughly analogous to this:

http://ford.com/not_real/Are_Ford_Cars_For_Me

Background
===========
Ford cars are not for everyone, although Ford works hard to make our
cars as usable as possible for the widest possible audience.

Finding Out
============
To find out whether Ford cars are suitable for you, ask yourself the
following:

* Are you a NASCAR driver?
* Do you want a car that features brand new technologies that will show
up in future cars?
* Are you okay with having to change your car's oil every 3,000 miles?
* Do you care about the Automotive Unions?
* Would you like to become a car mechanic?

If the answer to any or all of these questions is "yes", you should
consider a Ford car!

*****

This line of reasoning isn't remotely inclusionary, in fact, it is
almost poisonous. The wording about the "widest possible audience" is a
lie, because we promptly follow it up with wording to exclude new users.

Now, balance that with what I said about the validity of each Fedora
spin having a target audience. I think it might be fine (albeit,
disappointing) for someone to discover that there is no Fedora spin
which is a good fit for them, but for us to say that we will never give
a damn about them across all possible distribution spins... well, I
don't think I can back that in good conscience.

~spot