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Devuan and I got off to a bad start. The first link I clicked to their site was flagged by Firefox as possibly malicious. Continuing to their home page brought me to what would have been considered campy even in the 90s. I suspected a scam, or at least rank amateurism, and figured a short life for the project.
They recently released an "update on the progress of the Devuan.org," and I took a second look, especially at their finances.
The finances of the Devuan project are administered by the Dyne.org foundation, an international organization based in Amsterdam.
Dyne.org commits to financial transparency and will publish financial reports for this project, keeping them updated every year.
Their current financial report for 2014 is available as a pdf download.
Surprisingly, with all the anti-systemd trolling out there that they could cash in on, they're instead taking the high road.
We must not become acquainted to the fact that systemd discussions are swarmed by trolls fostering aggressive behaviour and personalized attacks of sorts. With the Devuan project and its early Debianfork declaration we did our best to avoid such dynamics, to bring forward a constructive discussion and action plan to respond to the systemd avalanche with technical analyses and solutions.
We kindly ask the community gathering around Devuan to take us seriously on this and avoid aggressive behaviour. Everyone should use extra attention when engaging criticism and in any case avoid any personalization, but stick to facts.
Their open professionalism is impressive. We could be seeing the birth of the next major player in Linux.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by HiThere on Wednesday December 24 2014, @03:30AM
Not really. A good impression is a good impression, and that's worthwhile. OTOH, I haven't visited the site recently, so I can't comment on what it actually *is* like. Some people aren't satisfied unless there is lots of flash, bells, and whistles, but I *prefer* sites that run in basic HTML, i.e. without JavaScript, flash, animated gifs, etc. So this may merely be a matter of taste. (And as for those pages with white text on a dark background...shudder.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday December 24 2014, @03:47AM
Perhaps the problem is people that determine first impression on the wrong parameters. There's a lot of such people though.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday December 24 2014, @06:13AM
Maybe they form their first impression using the only parameters provided?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday December 24 2014, @06:33AM
Maybe they should then conclude they lack enough data to draw any qualitative conclusion?
(I know it's inhuman to demand this of many, but it's in many cases the correct conclusion)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @07:20AM
It seemeth that thou art suggesting that a headline - nay, e'en a summary - mayst be insufficient to fully inform one. Blasphemy!
Indeed, thou implieth that one shouldst read TFA! Art thou fevered? Doth thou not know where thou art? Heretic! Putting thee to the torch would be too good for thee ...
(Score: 2) by hash14 on Wednesday December 24 2014, @08:48PM
Fair enough if that's what you want to do, but I don't think that's really putting the necessary amount of effort into forming a valid opinion.
If I'm going to judge a Linux distro, I'm going to watch some screencasts on youtube, read some reviews, and see if I can find anyone comparing it to my distro of choice.
I understand that distros need users to survive, but if people are going to judge the quality of Devuan based on its website rather than the content of what it provides, then I really do not lament the website filtering the crap out, so to speak. Those types would probably be more happy using something like Mint or Ubuntu anyways.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @01:04PM
Wrong parameters? Basing a first impression on how an organization presents themselves is using the correct parameters. I'm not aware of any printed materials or videos, so their website is it. If an organization is trying to attract interest, new members & volunteers, and donations, they should make the effort to present themselves in a way that is easy to approach, read and understand. The devuan.org website does not make that effort.
I'm not saying it should be one of those Wordpressy, parallax congested pukefests that have been littering up the web recently. Nor should it be a Geocities throwback of tables and frames. But it should have some level of order & organization, some segregation of content, and some navigation.
I want Devuan to succeed. I really do. I am a Debian user who is against the "shove systemd down your throat" movement. I sent an email offering to redo the Devuan website for free with free hosting, but I never heard back from them. I even wanted to donate $ but stopped when I got the "malicious website" warning. I wrote them about that, too, but never heard back. They are probably very busy, but too busy to ignore offers of free labor and/or donations? Even if it's just to say "no thanks, we love our site" or "here's the PayPal link"?
If the first impressions you give are "you must make an effort just to learn about us" and "don't bother asking questions because we don't return emails" then that is how people will interpret who you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 24 2014, @12:24PM
> And as for those pages with white text on a dark background...shudder.)
Like Devuan, you mean?