From: "Ara.T.Howard" <ahoward@...>
Date: 2004-04-02T00:54:23+09:00
Subject: [OT] Re: Makefile for mysql-ruby?

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, Richard wrote:

> I really hope nobody gets offended by my plea for some mercy.

none taken.

> I've looked and I've tried... and frankly I'm a bit dissapointed at why
> there's no 'support' for a Windows 2000/XP install of MySQL
> (mysql-4.0.18-win-noinstall.zip), and mysql-ruby (mysql-ruby-2.4.4.tar.gz).

consider this:

  the ms guys make money when you buy windows 2000/xp.  you buy it because,
  with it, things work (a good reason).  the developers of mysql-ruby do not
  make any money off of their labour - in fact, by developing tools that make
  ms products easy to use they actually make the ms guys money!  people will
  continue to buy their stuff as long as things 'work' with it - indeed,
  imagine that nothing 'worked' with 2000/xp, would you buy it?

my point is simply that any dissapointed with 'support' should be directed at
the ms guys - since they are they only ones who stand to make money by
supporting ms users.  of course, open source guys stand to gain something by
helping people out too - that is that one day someone might return the favour
by sending a patch or bug report for their software - that someone might
contribute (which it sounds like you are doing btw.) and the software then
improves for everyone - plus it's nice to be part of a group effort.  the
linux guys, make guys (say gnu), ruby guys all (for the most part) play by
these rules - and the ms guys do their own thing: take what they want, and
give nothing in return.  the real suprising thing is that there are even open
source developers out there that make efforts for their software to run on ms
platforms let alone come with one click installers!

anyhow, this isn't directed at you in particular, i just thought it might be
helpful for everyone involved if people out there were to think 

  "gee, it's completely amazing that i can get stuff for free at all when i
  support a company financially that is the antithesis of this"

in otherwords, if one votes (with $$) to NOT have open-source projects
available (which you are by purchasing ms products) one can't exactly be
suprised when these same open-source projects disappear or seem not to be
supported.

just my 2cts - absolutely no disrespect intended!

-a
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