What's Canonical thinking about Bazaar?

[Ben Finney]

Again, Stephen's message has much goodness in it.

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org> writes:

> We're not talking about "use" here. We're talking about the feeling of
> ownership. This is important because "owners" contribute
> disproportionately compared to "just users":
[…]

> Well, my opinion, and Ben's seems to be similar but somewhat stronger,
> is that lack of "ownership" is a big issue.  More ownership would get
> you more contribution.
[…]

> I don't think the communication is bad, particularly. You've been very
> open about what you're thinking, as have all the developers (mostly
> Ian, this time around, but I have a long history with Aaron, Robert,
> and John, at least, and trust them).

All agreed so far. But:

> The main problem I have with your end of the conversation is that you
> guys don't seem to "get" the radical free software movement attitude.
> You don't have to adopt it or sympathize with it, but misunderstanding
> hardcore GNU people or Debian people will cost you some resources.

As John Szakmeister's message shows, it's not accurate to portray this
as “the radical free software movement attitude”. It goes far beyond
people with strong opinions about free software, and into those who just
see Bazaar as one possible tool among many.

Even people who yawn at the idea of software freedom have concerns
(valid, IMO) about choosing an infrastructure tool that's overly tied to
its vendor.

A program whose vendor is known, but is much better known for its strong
user community, makes it obvious that the project will be strongly
directed by the needs of users. This engenders confidence (if, and to
the extent that, the user community is demonstrably strong). The users
“own” the project, in the senses Stephen has been discussing, and the
prospective user, first assessing Bazaar to figure out whether they can
depend on it, can *see* that immediately because it's clearly a
community project and not a single-corporation product.

The decision to brand Bazaar as “a Canonical product”, and with a
Canonical domain name and the other higher-emphasis Canonical branding
discussed in this thread, is directly opposed to the idea that the
Bazaar user community is a strength deserving to be the most visible
part of the project. As Stephen puts it, the decision indicates you guys
don't seem to get this; I really hope you can before making changes to
Bazaar's image.

-- 
 \        “The problem with television is that the people must sit and |
  `\    keep their eyes glued on a screen: the average American family |
_o__)                 hasn't time for it.” —_The New York Times_, 1939 |
Ben Finney