[BusyBox] Getting answers for users

Rob Landley rob at landley.net
Wed Apr 28 00:56:25 UTC 2004


On Thursday 22 April 2004 16:57, Donald Teed wrote:
> I've been around for a few days, but I noticed that many questions
> on this list go unanswered (other than me, and don't worry about
> my question - it is resolved).
>
> Perhaps we should ask elsewhere?
> Perhaps there should be a busybox developer's list and then a users list?
>
> Is it just too time consuming to answer the usage questions?

It's the standard problem with open source projects.  The developers are all 
volunteers, so holding new users' hands and performing general tech support 
is something that's done in our Copious Free Time, of which we have none.

Developer mailing lists tend to be active (as the developers coordinate their 
efforts), and it's also where all the most knowledgeable people hang out.  
But developers aren't good at tech support; in any commercial software house 
tech support people answering the phones are NOT the guys writing code (you 
have to escalate at _least_ twice through tech support before your problem 
gets to a developer).

And when you do get to a developer, if you're using code they haven't looked 
at in two years they're unlikely to take a half hour of their time to 
refamiliarize themselves with the old code, they'll just say "upgrade".  
Probably the questions you've seen go unanswered are about the busybox 
"stable" series, which is ancient and obsolete.  (We're working on getting 
1.0 out the door to replace it, it would have happened a month ago but Eric's 
wife had a baby and he's the project lead, so...)

With Linux distros, the answer is "bug your vendor", whom you paid money to.  
About 50% of the money paid to vendors is theoretically for tech support.  In 
fact Red Hat recently got out of the distro business to focus on tech 
support.

If you REALLY want an answer, you could always ask Eric Andersen, Manuel Nova, 
or Glenn McGrath what their hourly rates are.  Any of those three should be 
able to answer any question you have, if they make the time... :)

(P.S.  Vladimir Oleynik probably could too, but you'd have a much, much, much 
easier time understanding his answer if you spoke russian.)

Rob




More information about the busybox mailing list