On Mon, 4 Aug 2003, James Edward John Taylor wrote:
Why is it unfair? I wasnt jsut desciribing non-developers. I was descirbing pritty much everyone.
My point was that, even if someone just installs a Linux distro then never interacts with the rest of the open-source community again, they do something that
1 requires an effort; I don't think anyone will disagree that installation sometimes turns out to be a real hassle, and
2 benefits the rest of the community, including Linus himself, through the effect on hardware manufacturers of increased demand for Linux-compatibility.
That's not a free ride. Of course, it might be a very cheap ride, because both effects might be pretty small. If the person in question then goes on through the stages
1 Write questions, and receive answers, in mailing lists, which others can use as documentation later, through the archives.
2 Write well-crafted, useful bug reports, which make it easier for developers to identify and fix the bugs.
3 Write formal open-content documentation.
4 Write open-source code.
Then the ride gets gradually less cheap (and more comfortable) for them.