Re: Performance issues on Windows, suggests a MSVC build

[fork]

Ben Abbott <bpabbott <at> mac.com> writes:

> My thought is that more users are better than less. I appreciate the trouble
and frustration related to
> those who expect active support for fee ... very annoying crowd for me.

When you say "expect active support for free" what do you mean?  Is this asking
silly questions on the newsgroup?  Nothing particularly wrong with that, since
you can just (1) blow them off or (2) give them a lecture about how to behave in
a FOSS environment and (3) sort of reasonable questions build a knowledge base. 
 

If you want to get them to pay for asking silly questions, then formalize the
system (put your credit card number here, get an ID number there, and that gives
you 10 stupid questions per year, etc).

> > We have many Windows users, but not much in the way of Windows
> > developers.  How can we change this?  If the Windows users want
> > something to improve, then they need to provide some resources for
> > that, either by volunteering to do the work, or paying someone to do
> > the work.  Working on Windows systems makes me want to gag, but I'd be
> > willing to do it in exchange for $$.

Couple of thoughts --

(1) I bet there is a "conversion rate" at which a user becomes a contributor for
open source software.  My guess is 1/1000 per year (probably an over-hopeful
number really), though I have no data whatsoever.  If I am right, this is why it
is important to get a lot of windows users to just use first, so that the 1/1000
who can actually develop will start pitching in.  Otherwise, this 1/1000 will
never hear of you at all.  

(2) As I have said before, if I could find a link that would take my office VISA
card and spit out an invoice, a supported-user-id-number, and the latest binary
for $100.00, I would happily make that happen.  But until there is an easy path
for spending said $$, I can't do it.  And likely there is no single windows user
who is big enough to fund your time completely, so you have to make it easy to
fund it in incremental payments like this.

(Disclaimer: I have neither the time nor the ability nor the inclination to
develop Octave for Windows.  I would be interested in working on a "business
plan" for the above ideas if there is interest.)