Re: [Gimp-developer] Gimp on Steam

[Christopher Curtis <ccurtis0 gmail com>]

On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 1:33 PM, Sam Gleske <sam mxracer gmail com> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 1:14 PM, Christopher Curtis <ccurtis0 gmail com>wrote:
>
> > Putting GIMP into the hands of tens of thousands of users
> > who are probably not on the primary platform (i.e. Linux) may siphon
> > off valuable developer resources.
>
> In what way?

I'm going to assume that Steam will introduce GIMP to a new market of
people who otherwise wouldn't know about it. How do these people
engage in the software they get from Steam? Will they just delete it
if they don't like it or will they start posting inflammatory remarks
on the mailing list? Will they blog about what displeases them
attracting others to complain or to bring credence to their
complaints? Will there be a rash of new, possibly duplicate even if
well-intentioned, bug reports that have to be culled?

> > If so, would distribution though Stream attract sufficient volunteers to
> > offset this cost?
>
> There's no way to answer that question.  Is it a loaded question?

Not intentionally.

>  Assuming you're asking "what kind of community is Steam?"
> In what way does that make a difference in how GIMP is developed?
> GIMP has always been users supporting users
> with occasional input from devs.

If Steam were Linux-only I might agree. Maintaining "user-friendly"
Windows and OSX ports requires platform knowledge and other resources
the project doesn't appear to be overflowing with. I'm sure this kind
of discussion is in IRC logs somewhere.

> I don't really see these as valid concerns.  If you have questions that can
> actually be answered without here-say then I'll attempt to address them.

It's safe to assume that I don't.

Take care,
Chris