Re: [FYI][PATCH] Customizing the WinGit installer

From: Abdelrazak Younes <younes@lyx.org>
Date: Oct 6, 2008, 21:19 UTC
Message-ID: <48EA80D4.5030209@lyx.org>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0810061959280.22125@pacific.mpi-cbg.de.mpi-cbg.de>

On 06/10/2008 20:01, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 22 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> On Mon, 6 Oct 2008, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 6 Oct 2008, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
>>> Well, I consider it a courtesy to the msysGit people to leave it where
>>> it is.
>> Umm. I consider it to be UNACCEPTABLY STUPID to claim "courtesy" if it
>> actually makes something just more irritating to users.
>>
>> I absolutely detest clicking through EULA's or other self-serving crap.
>> I hate software that bothers me with their license details. Nobody reads
>> those things anyway, and an extra click or an extra window I didn't ask
>> for - _especially_ in open source software - is just a bug.
>>
>> Bugs aren't "courtesy". Not to the user, and certainly not to the
>> developer.
>
> It is not a bug.  It is a message that tells the Windows user that this is
> GPLed software, and that they are free to copy it.  Windows users (and
> developers on Windows are more of users than developers) are often not
> aware of that fact.

Well, maybe so called "Windows pseudo-developers" do not feel welcome to participate to this particular project? Or maybe this project has not reached yet the minimum visibility threshold? git has a lot of contributors on Linux because it is visible there. Do you think all users of git on Linux systematically contributes?

Don't get me wrong, I am truly thankful for msysgit but, IMHO, if you produce and publish a free software you should just accept and be glad that it is used. Otherwise, just don't publish it.

> That is the reason why many Open Source projects do not bother on Linux,
> but do bother on Windows.

And a lot other projects do not bother with this even on Windows and Mac too.

Regards, Abdel.