Note: as a reminder, my email to bluehighways.com and freerangelibrarian.com is still very screwed up. I have had any number of people tell me they sent me email; I’ve participated in small threads where other people see responses that never arrive. I’ve sent myself email from other accounts that get there. And of course, I keep having conversations with people (through means other than email) that invariably begin, “I sent you a message…” (No, it’s not in junk mail, and it doesn’t bounce.)
The ongoing problems I’m having with with my email — I’ve now begged Fastmail to undo subdomain mapping and as soon as I’m not on the road I’m going to find a new email provider — remind me of one of the silliest arguments for open source: that people want to be close to their software.
Understand, there are many good arguments for open source, and there is obvious value to the “many eyes” approach to software development. (No, Fastmail is not open source. That’s not the point.) But as an end-user, if I have to get close to my software to make it work well, something’s very wrong. Yes, there are forums for Fastmail and I could “engage.” But I don’t want to “engage” in this issue any more than I want to figure out why the handle fell off our six-year-old refrigerator. I’m busy; I’ve got other things to do. I’ve “engaged” for a month and that has been more than anyone should have to get involved with making a tool work. I just want functioning email.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Powder featured on NPR - 2008
- Santa's Wishlist - 2006
- MPOW SWAG Arrives! - 2004
- Amazon's Search Inside the Book - 2003
- IL Con-Grunt: Final Kibbles and Bits - 2003
Well, I agree that “people want to be close to their software” is a silly reason to coerce someone else into using open source.
But “*I* want to be close to *my* software” seems perfectly reasonable.