Hi Christopher.

Le 16/03/2017 03:32, Christopher Clements a écrit :
>
> Microsoft said, and I quote:
>
> "Note, however, that Compaq and Dell merely have to credibly threaten
> Linux adoption in order to push for lower OEM OS pricing."
> <http://www.catb.org/~esr/halloween/halloween2.html>
>
> Linux distributions are the same way when it comes to users.

     Customers' move is critical when cash-flow is at stake, not when 
only ego is.

>
> If a huge chunk of your user base threatened to switch, you'd think
> twice about doing whatever it is that they don't like.

     Many free software developper teams proved already they are mostly 
working for themselves - eg Gnome, KDE, Firefox. When people develop 
software for free, they put a lot of their ego in it, and this goes 
against the ability to recognize ones own mistakes or bad decisions; I 
think this is the weak point of free software.

>
> Debian knows that some people do not approve of systemd being mandatory,
> but they might not now exactly _how many_ people disapprove.

     They just don't care, as long as developpers comply with their 
requirements. Even some developpers are only concerned with the amount 
of work implied for them by the init system, and prefer systemd just 
because of that - good example in the thread pointed by 
dotcommon@???: 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2017-03/msg00017.html.

     Sorry, I would like to share your hopes, but experience shows 
they're wrong.

     Look, today Devuan lives with using mostly Debian packages, a small 
fraction of which being de-poetterized. Let's be optimistic and assume 
that Devuan gets more and more success in the future, to the point that 
most developpers and maintainers come to it. Then the opposite situation 
will happen: Debian will continue living by mirroring Devuan and 
poetterizing some of the packages; they'll not give up. But we won't 
care, just like they don't care of us. WIll they complain on DNG?

     Didier