brainstorming for UDS-N - Application Developers

[Martin Owens]

On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 15:42 -0400, Jorge O. Castro wrote:
> They say "Wow, this app sucks, -1, let me leave a comment and
> uninstall it" and the junk apps get buried in the USC and let the
> cream float to the top.

And so ends the economics of application development, RIP, we barely
knew you.

It's just as important to have it known that applications are not always
going to be perfect for everyone, but with a little bit of investment of
time or money things will improve. The invitation doesn't even exist in
the USC in either invitations to program or invitations to fund.

If we don't take economics seriously we risk ending up with a user base
which is self indulgent, unjustly indignant and completely removed from
the people who are _paying_ for their computer software.

The last thing I want out of the USC is a view that commercial ==
proprietary and charity/happenstance == open source. This is also
reflected in how we position the application platform.

> We need to realize that we
> need to BEND OVER BACKWARDS for app developers if we want people to
> make great applications without them getting frustrated and continuing
> to ignore our platform. This includes making sacrifices on how we do
> things and realizing that there are no sacred anythings in how we do
> those things.

We do need to provide a competent platform. But FOSS is a principle, you
may not always be allowed to follow it, you may have to compromise on
it. But at least hold it as tightly as you can and refuse to give it up
so easily.

Practicalism isn't a principle, it's the problem to be solved. You use
your principles to weigh up the cost of actions to solve that problem.
You do _not_ replace your principles wholesale with a view that cheapens
and makes light of principles in general.

Martin,