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> Suffice to say, he's made some enemies that don't want him and his team to succeed. This is the "Donald Trump is an American politician..." take. Drew is mo

> Suffice to say, he's made some enemies that don't want him and his team to succeed. This is the "Donald Trump is an American politician..." take. Drew is most well-known as a high-profile FOSS troll. You should view some other entries in his blog. My first experience with Drew was "Developers shouldn't distribute their own software." That post goes directly to the heart of the question, "Why would you call him a troll?" Because he has glib and self-serving answers for every seemingly hard question in software.

wheelerof4te 4y ago
I read his blog posts regularly. I even read the one you mentioned. The guy has his opinions. It's his blog. You are free to express your opinions on your blog.
- xoxoxoxox 4y ago
  Absolutely, just as others are free to form their own opinions on his tone and approach to communication and share those.
- mustache_kimono 4y ago
  Sure. No argument there? It's fine if he expresses his opinions, and even if some people enjoy these opinions. Serious people just shouldn't take his opinions seriously. Why? Because I've yet to experience an instance where his views were at all illuminating or helpful. For each and every issue I've seen him confront, he seems to choose the most shallow, uncritical, provocative path. It's Fox News-style opinion journalism for FOSS.
caslon 4y ago
That was a completely sensible post, though. Shipping binaries that users can't reproduce is harmful to users, and wastes time on behalf of developers.
- mustache_kimono 4y ago
  Ugh. I'm not sure you remember the article correctly. This is kind of the problem with his writing in general; it has a Rashomon quality. In this particular post, he expresses an admirable sentiment (devs shouldn't be responsible for packaging, users need to take more responsibility for their distro) and then fails to consider any of the practical problems with his approach (What if devs want users to use their software? Users and maintainers generally don't give a shit about your software). Yet with his usual DeVault-ian flourish, he concludes that he's solved all the intractable problems of software distribution. Spoiler alert: He hasn't.
  - caslon 4y ago
    I do remember the post. He's not wrong. A user compiling from source or using a distribution's package manager is unambiguously less harmful than having them rely on opaque binaries.
    - mustache_kimono 4y ago
      > Shipping binaries that users can't reproduce is harmful to users, and wastes time on behalf of developers. > A user compiling from source or using a distribution's package manager is unambiguously less harmful than having them rely on opaque binaries. The question I have is: Is that really his argument? Because I guess I missed it. Please read it again, and then again. Because I think you may be seeing what you want to see. See my discussion re: the Rashomon quality of his writing. The blog entry that really hit home for me re: what Drew is really about was "A megacorp is not your dream job". Drew, as far as I know, isn't speaking from some deep well of experience or knowledge ("I worked for Google and let me tell you..."). He also never makes an argument. After awhile you realize he's not really saying anything at all. It's fundamentally contentless (like this entry "bleh"). It's all just vibes, like Fox News's opinion journalism or Trump is just vibes.
      - caslon 4y ago
        > The question I have is: Is that really his argument? Because I guess I missed it. Please read it again, and then again. Because I think you may be seeing what you want to see. See my discussion re: the Rashomon quality of his writing. Yes, that is his argument. I reread the post when you contested the first time, and I reread it again now, and it is unambiguously his argument. > Drew, as far as I know, isn't speaking from some deep well of experience or knowledge He worked for SpaceX, which is a multi-billion dollar company.

wheelerof4te 4y ago

I read his blog posts regularly. I even read the one you mentioned. The guy has his opinions. It's his blog. You are free to express your opinions on your blog.

xoxoxoxox 4y ago
Absolutely, just as others are free to form their own opinions on his tone and approach to communication and share those.
mustache_kimono 4y ago
Sure. No argument there? It's fine if he expresses his opinions, and even if some people enjoy these opinions. Serious people just shouldn't take his opinions seriously. Why? Because I've yet to experience an instance where his views were at all illuminating or helpful. For each and every issue I've seen him confront, he seems to choose the most shallow, uncritical, provocative path. It's Fox News-style opinion journalism for FOSS.

caslon 4y ago

That was a completely sensible post, though. Shipping binaries that users can't reproduce is harmful to users, and wastes time on behalf of developers.

mustache_kimono 4y ago
Ugh. I'm not sure you remember the article correctly. This is kind of the problem with his writing in general; it has a Rashomon quality. In this particular post, he expresses an admirable sentiment (devs shouldn't be responsible for packaging, users need to take more responsibility for their distro) and then fails to consider any of the practical problems with his approach (What if devs want users to use their software? Users and maintainers generally don't give a shit about your software). Yet with his usual DeVault-ian flourish, he concludes that he's solved all the intractable problems of software distribution. Spoiler alert: He hasn't.
- caslon 4y ago
  I do remember the post. He's not wrong. A user compiling from source or using a distribution's package manager is unambiguously less harmful than having them rely on opaque binaries.
  - mustache_kimono 4y ago
    > Shipping binaries that users can't reproduce is harmful to users, and wastes time on behalf of developers. > A user compiling from source or using a distribution's package manager is unambiguously less harmful than having them rely on opaque binaries. The question I have is: Is that really his argument? Because I guess I missed it. Please read it again, and then again. Because I think you may be seeing what you want to see. See my discussion re: the Rashomon quality of his writing. The blog entry that really hit home for me re: what Drew is really about was "A megacorp is not your dream job". Drew, as far as I know, isn't speaking from some deep well of experience or knowledge ("I worked for Google and let me tell you..."). He also never makes an argument. After awhile you realize he's not really saying anything at all. It's fundamentally contentless (like this entry "bleh"). It's all just vibes, like Fox News's opinion journalism or Trump is just vibes.
    - caslon 4y ago
      > The question I have is: Is that really his argument? Because I guess I missed it. Please read it again, and then again. Because I think you may be seeing what you want to see. See my discussion re: the Rashomon quality of his writing. Yes, that is his argument. I reread the post when you contested the first time, and I reread it again now, and it is unambiguously his argument. > Drew, as far as I know, isn't speaking from some deep well of experience or knowledge He worked for SpaceX, which is a multi-billion dollar company.