On Sun, 2006-04-02 at 01:26 +0100, Ian mu wrote:
Fair points, but there's a difference though (imo) between the angle some come accross from. I.e if I say I want to do X and it needs me to compile a kernel, and someone knows that there's a resolution without, then great, this is where the information becomes invaluable. Igorance is actually fine a lot of the time (as absurd as that sounds), most of us at some time or another have assumed one solution for someone else to come up with a better one. There's no shame in not knowing better, this is how we learn. This is 95% of our customers these days in fact I find.
However I wouldn't be condenscending like this list can be at times (don't mean the recent replies or even specifically this thread,
I know what you mean there. I would only say that "condescension" seems to be not limited to this list, but seems to reside in various individuals on many lists. And, IMO, is most likely in those who are very experienced, both in project members sometimes and non-members sometimes.
Please keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that the quality of condescension can be heavily influenced by the listener. To paraphrase an old adage "Condescension is in the ear of the hearer"... sometimes! ;-)
its probably the tail of other responses), there's no harm in saying, "well ideally you could do X, but if thats not suitable, here's the link to do Y which you want". Some people just want an answer they don't understand, but thats very rare I find, most people want a solution they understand even if its not their own solution. Thats simply good education.
As mentioned, the nature of many list participants precludes the shortest possible answer. I think most tend to want to be helpful, in terms of sharing information, and that leads to the least direct answer often.
In reality though, there's rarely been an "ideal" operating that hasn't needed "something" doing which isn't necessarily following the core ideals. What people have said about RH/Centos does make perfect sense, and people do know that (mainly anyway). Unless there's an o.s that "perfectly" matches the applications that run on it, its quite likely its going to happen at some point that you need to go out of bounds.
Agreed. And I've seen this list help many (recent php threads, IIRC, is a good example?).
<snip my previous posting from below>
Anyway, let's hope that all can accomplish what they need and give others the latitude to offer opinions/education/etc. in a way that makes the project pleasant for the majority.
Bill