On the relationship between developpers and their userbase.
I am userbase, as basic as you can ever imagine. I do not code, I do not perform fancy fixes on bugs, I use my ubuntu desktop for what it is: a desktop. No eye-candy killer machine, no extreme gaming zone, no kernel compiler, no network and hacking gear.
I barely maintain a blog, I do not even host it myself (apologies for the downtimes, my free host is … free, they install wordpress and upgrade it, I am forever in debt), but I contribute to the Ubuntu project doing what I know and like the best: building bridges between worlds.
Strait to the point: we have a Dev-Link forum on UF. Some identified developers use it, to get feedback from the userbase. I think it is a great great great and underused idea.
The Ubuntu users crowd is diverse. Some of them are long time Linux addicts, some are coming from the other side of the fence, from the Windows world. Most of the new users gather on the forums. Mailing lists and IRC do not belong to their world. These channels do not mix up very much. Newcomers know how to use a web browser, and an IRC client is a whole new tool they need to learn.
Dev-Link is an ideal bridge, but why is it so little used by the devs? Once again, thanks to the ones (Henrik, Hobbsee, RAOF, ago, jasonspiro, asac, MetalMusicAddict, bmartin, DoctorMO, tepsipakki, bryceharrington, gnomefreak…) who use it. Forums are not a dev world, is that it? What is a userbase for a Ubuntu dev? Couple links to think about:
- A dev eye on the user testing. As Jason Spiro once told me in an email: developers and users never use their PCs the same way.
- Development decisions and user feedback. Discussion currently going on.
- On the relationship between mailing-lists and the forums. This thread is more about the Development Idea Pool on UF. Please read down the whole thread.
How to either bring the userbase to the dev prefered channels (ie ml or IRC) or get the devs to use their web browser?
