To the Armchair Directors

[Colin Percival]

At 17:56 15/03/2004, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>Here is a simple litmus test:
>
>         If your message contains the two words "somebody should"
>         next to each other in that order, then it is very likely
>         in the first (ie: wrong) category.

   While this is generally the case, I'd like to point out that FreeBSD
Update exists as a direct result of complaints on the mailing lists.
After seeing the same people complaining about wanting the same feature
every couple months for over a year, I decided to put together a binary
security update system just to get them to be quiet.  (But maybe I'm
harder to irritate than most committers...)

>If you feel something should be done, then do it or pay somebody
>to do it, don't pontificate that the nonexistant committer "somebody"
>should do it.

   Naturally, money is a good motivator for wishlist items.  FreeBSD
Update has cost me both time and money; being a DPhil student, I have
little of one and less of the other.  (Rant: Why, when people pay $60
per year to get access to RedHat's updates, will nobody give me any
money for FreeBSD Update?  Over 2500 happy users, and the only time
anyone has sent me anything was when I begged for the money to buy a
5.x buildbox.)

Colin Percival