XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Randall R Schulz <rschulz AT sonic.net>]

On Friday 01 June 2007 09:41, Michael Kay wrote:
> > If you want to be a player in the enterprise software world,
> > supporting multiple versions is a burden you have to be
> > willing to bear anyhow:
>
> No, the dynamics of open source development changes that entirely.
> When users aren't paying, they can't make demands.
>
> When I started doing open source I found that incredibly liberating,
> and it enabled me to move forward at a far faster pace and produce
> much better software than I had ever done in the commercial space.

Does this not amount to saying that if you ignore your users' requests, 
you can do anything you want? It's true, of course, but it seems like a 
disservice to those you presumably want to use your software.

You say non-payers cannot make demands, but at the same time, you cannot 
pretend to be satisfying their needs unless you respect their 
requirements.

I fail to see how disconnecting user demand from developer obligation 
can improve the quality of software or accelerate the overall advances 
in the world of software and information technology.

Software is already, and for the most part rightly, seen as inadequate 
both in its utility and in its quality and reliability. Telling users, 
even if they're other programmers, that if they want something they 
should create it themselves is just arrogant.


> Michael Kay


Randall Schulz