(Off Topic ) Open Source: The Model Is Broken ??

[Ed Greshko]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Ed Greshko wrote:
>
>>>> 1) be ABLE to write good documentation. You yourself acknowledged
>>>    good "documenters" are scarce. You're either good at it or you
>>>    aren't, it's just like programming or any other complex creative
>>>    activity. This is the biggest obstacle, or at least the first thing
>>>    that makes the "write it yourself or shut up" useless (at least).   
>> Actually, my motives where much more subtle (sinister).
>> I tend to feel that some those wanting more/better documentation don't
>> quite realize how difficult producing quality documentation for the
>> masses truly is.   So, it is more of "try doing it and maybe you'll gain
>> some appreciation for the difficulty".
>
> How does understanding the difficultly help?  And other than the
> interactive desktop programs like the office tools, why should
> 'masses' need to know all the details?
>
>>> 2) have enough free time, after you've paid mortgage, food and bills,
>>>    to start and finish writing a manual. Unless you're _paid_ just to
>>>    write that documentation, of course. Even if you're good, it takes
>>>    a lot of time and effort to do a good job.
>>>
>>>   
>> Which is why there may be a niche market for some company involved
>> "support" to include documentation.  But, that would require a business
>> plan and a business model....  :-(
>
> There is a well known book publisher covering technical topics with a
> bazillion titles, but published books can't keep up with the rate of
> change in fedora.  What we need is a way to eliminate most of the need
> for local configuration in the same way open source eliminates most of
> the need for local programming for common tasks.  That is, have a way
> that a configuration that someone has expertly tuned for a particular
> purpose can be shared with anyone who needs to do the same kind of
> work. Fedora mostly just ships one config file for every program and
> might do a little tweaking to match hardware and user choices during
> installation.  If there were perhaps a hundred choices instead,
> pre-tuned to different usage models, the end user would only need to
> know what he wanted to accomplish, not the million variables he had to
> change to do it.
>
*** I'm not talking about FEDORA...the article wasn't about FEDORA *** 
And this is getting even more OT than before.

-- 
Use a pun, go to jail. Mei-Mei.Greshko at greshko.com

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