tell me about problems instead of whining in public

giraffedata — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 23:30:58 +0000

I wish people would spend a little time sending *me* the feedback on problems with XNotesPlus instead of whining in public. I have answered *every* email

I also get frustrated when I learn people have been complaining to people other than me about weaknesses in my software, considering that I always respond well to the complaints.

But I understand it. You and I are unusual. Most of the time, I find myself wasting my time emailing authors about problems I have with their software. If I get any response at all, it's often, "you're the only one in the world with that problem. You're weird. Your solution is to conform." I don't have time for that.

XNotesplus - calendar support (and comments on Grumpy Editor column)

utidjian — Fri, 26 Mar 2004 03:07:54 +0000

Michael,
My post at LWN seem "silly" to you but, for me, it was with one exception, based on fact. The exception is I didn't like the default theme of the XNotesplus application as seen here:
http://www.graphics-muse.com/xnotes/screenshots.html

The rest is all fact: (quoting myself)

"XNotesPlus is not "free"." Fact see: http://www.graphics-muse.com/xnotes/ordering.html

"It is shareware." Fact (see above).

"Yes, the source is available... but it doesn't build on my system (something about pspell)." Fact: There is no pspell in Fedora Core 1 (my current distro (see below))

"J-pilot does." Fact: Not only can I build the latest version... it is included with Red Hat 9 and Fedora Core 1. Check your RH9 distro media.

"It also has a horrendously ugly interface (from the screenshots)." NOT Fact. It is my opinion.

"I suppose the interface is adjustable but it is hard to tell when it won't build." Fact (see above).

"Seems that supported binaries (US$10) are available up to Red Hat 7.3. RH7.3 is no longer supported by Red Hat." Fact see:
http://www.graphics-muse.com/xnotes/ordering.html and
http://www.graphics-muse.com/xnotes/download.html

"In other words... XNotesPlus seems to be an even more deadend proposition than ical." Fact: As far as I could tell from your website the app is only supported up to RH7.3. Sure, perhaps I could fiddle the source into working but what good what would that do?

"ical, BTW, still builds and installs correctly on my system (Fedora Core 1)." Fact: It does work.

Quoting you:

"The "pspell" issue is configurable in the config.h" How?

"And the RH9 binary version is even on the web site, available for download *WITHOUT PAYMENT*." Where? I looked in http://www.graphics-muse.org/source/XNotesPlus/ those are all tarballs.

"So this guy is just whining without really doing his homework (and I certainly have not received any email from him asking about these issues)."
Perhaps you should do YOUR homework and update your site. Why should I go through any more effort in order to get your software to work? Why should I email you for working out problems in your software when there is no way of sharing or resolving those problems via your website? jpilot.org has a mailing list and archives. I would much rather search for solutions to my problems with your software that others may have offered than bother you with the details (hardly worth my $10 if you have to respond to support requests).

Since reading your letter I did even MORE homework. I found a machine at work that still has a stock and fully updated Red Hat 9 install. I downloaded this file:
http://www.graphics-muse.org/source/XNotesPlus/XNotesPlus-v3.6.1.tar.gz
Then followed the directions in the README. It built and installed fine on the RH9 box (it has pspell and I did not edit config.h)... then this:

[utidjian@dellbert utidjian]$ bin/xnotes+
XNotesPlus: GTK configuration file - /home/utidjian/.xnotesplus/XNotesPlus.cfg
Register file: /home/utidjian/.xnotesplus/.register
Segmentation fault
[utidjian@dellbert utidjian]$

All I can say is.... (thud).

I re-read the README... I looked over your site... no help. I could have emailed you about it but I think you are getting this message now. I really can't see how "shared source" shareware is worth my time... or yours at $10/user. If it was open source and I really needed or liked the software at least my efforts (and yours) could continue to exist... even if you get fed up with the project. Your software will only live as long as YOU are interested in it. Fully Open Source projects will live as long as the the community of users is interested in it. At $10/user I can't imagine why you would want to keep supporting the software on your own. Because of this XNotesplus seems to me to be even more deadend than ical.

BTW ical is still alive and well, see:
http://www.annexia.org/freeware/ical/
That could never happen with XNotesplus under its current license.
Think about it.

The only thing I feel "silly" about in this whole thing is that I actually spent a lot of time on it.

-David Utidjian-
Physics Lab Coordinator
Ramapo College of new Jersey
dutidjia -AT- ramapo.edu

Shareware

christophe — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 15:49:31 +0000

I don't see why XNotePlus is regularly mentioned in LWN other than IIRC its author being a former LWN editor. I did not try it and I am not going to. Perhaps it solves problems that are not solved by Free Software but I doubt it.

Anyway I would love to not read about this SHAREWARE in LWN again.

LWN: Comments on "XNotesplus - calendar support (and comments on Grumpy Editor column)"

tell me about problems instead of whining in public

XNotesplus - calendar support (and comments on Grumpy Editor column)

Shareware