Re: gEDA-user: CERN goes for KiCAD

[Dan Roganti <ragooman@xxxxxxxxx>]

   On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 10:08 AM, DJ Delorie <[1]dj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

   > you all never worried about cern before? why start now?

     It's not CERN itself that's the issue, it's that a big organization
     wanted to help a project, and it wasn't us.  The more developers
     Kicad
     gets, the more users they'll get, which brings in more developers,
     etc.  If we lose developers, we lose users, then lose more
     developers,
     etc.  User base and developer base are tied together, and losing an
     opportunity like CERN to Kicad is only going to hasten this process.

   I can tell you that I switched from KiCad recently.
   I've been in this for 30+yrs, but there was still a small learning
   curve to get it rolling.
   But with some help from Dave McGuire, it was a smoother process, since
   he sits right next to me here.
   As you mentioned, it's very important to listen to your Users. That's
   one aspect with the KiCad group that is very strong. It might very well
   explain their growing popularity. Saying you don't need new
   'customeer's,  as was mentioned, is the wrong attitude. I used this
   tool once before about 15yrs ago as a hobbyiest, only to switch over to
   something else since the group I had joined had already been amassed
   with projects using another tool suite.
   It might be fine that this tool is very open and flexible - I'm all for
   that- so you really want to promote it. Expecting people to just read
   the FAQ's or RTFM, is not how you gain acceptance.  And then remarks
   are made on this mailing list about "simple minded" people in regards
   to new users- or returning users. There's only one impression that
   comes to mind to the outside world  - plain arrogance. Nobody want to
   deal people with that attitude.
   =Dan

     So, one of two things is going to happen:
     1. Kicad gets all the attention and gEDA dies a slow and painful
     death.
     2. gEDA gets it act together and starts attracting more
     users/developers.
     While I'm not going to look at CERN itself as a specific problem, I
     do
     see it as a wake-up call to the gEDA community.

   > better to just keep focused on your current customers then unknown
   > future additional users.

     Any project which stops attracting new "customers" dies.
     Note that "customers" is entirely the wrong term to use, unless the
     "customers" start paying cold hard cash.  It sets entirely the wrong
     expectations.  "Users" or even "partners" is a much better
     relationship - we're all in this together!

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References

   1. mailto:dj@xxxxxxxxxxx
   2. mailto:geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   3. http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user


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