Bug #1208204 - "indicator-sound no longer functions with xfce4-indicator-plugin"

[Peter Flynn]

On 12/04/2013 05:33 PM, Bruno Benitez wrote:
> Hello Richard, as I understand from the meetings we have held, if 
> there is enough need of it our developers can make a fix through the 
> backport channel.

Speaking as a project manager (in a different field), I have every
sympathy with this point of view...

> It is very sad that we have this issue in first place, but control 
> over sound was available and lots of tutorials on how to fix it
> where also available, if users would abandon just for this cause
> there is no much else we can do.

...speaking as a psychologist, I would say that it may be useful for
developers to understand that users *do* abandon distros for this kind
of thing, and for even smaller ones.

Their reasoning is that "if the developers can't get the small things
right," (and they would view a plugin indicator as a "small thing"),
"then there is little hope of the big things being right."

It's a frighteningly brutal viewpoint, and when it happens in a
commercial environment, a damaging one. The British have a phrase for
it: "to spoil the ship for a pennyworth of tar" (from the days when
wooden ships needed waterproofing with tar).

On the other hand, it acts as a filter: users who do not have the
inclination or skill to find a fix will leave the community. In the long
term this may reduce the demand for support.

> In any case the fix for the plugin indicators will be included in
> 14.04 and it will be an LTS, so that would be the recommended
> solution to anyone, just wait a few months.

A new user probably won't wait a few months to get a sound indicator
working. They'll give up and install something else.

///Peter