RE: Request for a version/ revision/ release number for the whole Cygwin release/ distribution

["Dave Korn" <dk at artimi dot com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cygwin-owner On Behalf Of David Christensen
> Sent: 03 October 2004 03:15


  Heh, decided to TITTTL with this one; rather than write a point-by-point
rebuttal of his post to me, I'm just going to take the piss out of^W^W^W^Wquote
some choice excerpts, because they reminded me why clueless newbies fresh out of
business school with an MBA and no knowledge of the real world who think that
there's no conceivable area of human enterprise that can't benefit from their
oh-so-great managerial wisdom and people-managing skills are actually really
really very very funny indeed....... ;P


> I think that by changing priorities and re-allocating people and
> resources, it should be possible to [ ... ]

  Doesn't get the idea of an opensource project, does he?  _I_ think that by
attempting to push people around and give orders, you aren't likely to make many
friends.  People put up with it when they're getting paid for it as a job.   They
don't tend to volunteer for it for fun.

>  [ ... ] increase Cygwin's acceptance and
> usage for potentially hundreds of millions of people.  

  LOL, who let this marketing bullshit in here?  Wow, hundreds of millions of
people who are all just crying out for a posix emulation layer for windows.  If
only we had better marketing!  If only we had an advertising campaign!  If only we
all wore suits and ties!  Heh, when I was a band ten years ago, we had this
mentally-ill guy hang around us who wanted to be our manager.  _He_ had delusions
of entrepreneurship as well.  Kept trying to tell us we could be turning over a
couple of hundred thousand by the end of the year.  I thought that was unlikely,
considering that we were a bunch of skint hippies - and so were all our potential
market.  You can't make a fortune by selling stuff to the completely penniless!

> Let me put it another way and tie it in to volunteerism -- 
> did you guys
> volunteer so that your name would be on junk or on quality?

  Aaargh!  He used the 'Q' word!  Next he's going to be asking what Cygwin's
"mission statement" is about!

  He also doesn't get the idea of an opensource project.  Did _any_ of us here
volunteer to "get our names" on something?  Is anyone fixing cygwin bugs because
they hope it will lead them to fame and glory and the advancement of their
career.....     .... or do you just do it because you need to use cygwin yourself
and you want it debugged?

> corporate counsel for
> whomever owns Cygwin and you're granting me a license to create my own
> Cygwin distribution, including using the trademarked name?

  LOL.  He _soooooo_ doesn't get open source, does he?

>  Just imagine the quality we could achieve 

  Right, that's the second time he's used *that* word.  One more strike and he's
out!

> How many people have heard The Two Rules of Customer Service?
> 
> 1.  The customer is always right.
> 
> 2.  When the customer is wrong, refer to rule #1.
> 
> When you don't obey the rules, you lose the customer plus anyone he
> talks to.  Bye, Eric.  Go figure, Cygwin.

  He _sooooooooooooooooo_ doesn't get open source.  Or the definition of the word
'customer', for that.  Poor old Cygwin.  Bet it's really smarting over all that
lost income!  Maybe I should add a third rule for him

3.  When the customer does not even exist, you may ignore rules #1 and #2.

> If we make volunteering for Cygwin a positive, enjoyable, and
> success-filled experience for people of all levels of skill [ ... ]

  Woah.. let's make it "positive, enjoyable and success filled".  As opposed to
our current attemps to make it negative, unpleasant and futile.  I wish we'd
thought of that before!

> Let me restate: I am still waiting to hear from whomever 
> fills the role
> of Cygwin volunteer coordinator.  E.g. "Hi, I'm the Cygwin volunteer
> coordinator.  Thank you for offering to volunteer to help with the
> Cygwin project. Please read the following introductory 
> materials so that
> you know what to expect and what is expected of you (URL, URL, URL).
> After that, please review the following task list (task board 
> URL?) and
> contact the task requestor for the tasks that you have an interest in
> helping with."

  Wow.  He _soooooooooooooo_ doesn't get opensource projects.  I can just see him
standing around at the world finals of the feline rodeo, saying "It's easy, why
don't you just herd all those cats whereever it is you want them to go".

> 2.  The success Cygwin will enjoy by having a stable distribution that
> is publicly applauded and widely used.

  Ummmm... again with the fame-and-fortune seeking attitude.  Dude, I just want  a
posix emulation layer so that I can use some decent command line tools in my work.
I don't care if it's "publicly applauded".  Gah.

> 3.  The sooner we get started, the sooner it will become a 
> reality.  The
> first goal is one nine (e.g. 90%), then two nines (99%), then three,
> etc..

  Heh, I've been enjoying his repeated use of "we [ ... do something ... ]" when
he really means "I want you to [ ... whatever ... ]".  That's true
management-speak, that is.

  Anyway, my conclusion, without having googled the dude's email address or
searched the web for his college records or anything like that at all, is that
he's a recent graduate in MBA / HR / some other bogus bullspeak, and he's all
fired up with evangelistic enthusiasm, and he's found some little project, and
decided to make it his protege, and wants us all to believe that "We can really
make something happen here" and "Cygwin could really be going places"....

  Really.  I can't stop laughing.  The guys a natural comedian :)


    cheers, 
      DaveK
-- 
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....