On Sun, May 02, 1999 at 10:39:59PM -0700, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> 
> "Brian C. Grayson" writes:
> 
> >  What if we turn the problem around -- instead of finding out
> >who has problems, what if we found out who _didn't_ have
> >problems, or at least who has such hardware?  For example,
> >volunteers could set up their /etc/rc.local to E-mail their
> >dmesg or some such to a site.  
> 
> You should have heard the shrieks of outrage about a `netbsd
> counter' project.  (basically, adding an option to the isntall
> to send an email saying NetBD had been isntalled on another machine).
> 
> Do you think this'd be seen any differently?

  To me, the counter is fundamentally different -- it exists
for PR, is a one-time thing, could easily be faked, etc.
Sending dmesg output and saying "I volunteer to try to help out
with hardware compatibility does-it-work queries" is a much
more serious, but still small, commitment that is likely to
have a much larger impact on the project as a whole than Yet
Another Tick In The i386 Column.  :)  Or, in other words, my
proposal is a way of people helping developers help people. 
I'm not sure what the counter project would be considered, but to
me it would not be as wonderful of a thing.

  If folks don't want to help out, there would be nothing
stopping them from not doing so.

  As long as the counter default was "no", I'm not sure I see
why anyone would complain about the counter proposal, except
cluttering the install process with one more checkbox.  Any
replies on this should be via private E-mail to me.

  Brian