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I don't understand the point you're trying to make in the first three paragraphs. > Is this statement from 2006 still true AFAIK Fedora is primarily volunteer

I don't understand the point you're trying to make in the first three paragraphs. > Is this statement from 2006 still true AFAIK Fedora is primarily volunteer-developed. At the same time RH has some decision-making power and pours some resources in it. > If you are paid to work on a project, you are not a volunteer. what does the above have to do with anything? > why should profit be the primary motive to support accessibility on a FOSS system IDK ask Aral why is he calling volunteers ableist while at the same time not providing patches. Maybe do a little experiment -- go fund his foundation and see whether he would fix the issue then.

eesmith 2y ago
I'm pointing out that even if you dismiss his comments entirely, there are others making similar claims, and you have not addressed their (what seems to me) entirely valid criticisms. > what does the above have to do with anything? You said he blamed volunteers. Even if volunteers are blameless, he is also blaming IBM. Does IBM get to use volunteers as shields? Can you quantify what "volunteer" means? Like, when I read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Linux I see "Red Hat engineers, along with independent free software contributors have built most of the pieces for [Silverblue] over the last few years". Those engineers are clearly not volunteers. Can you quantify how much of the development is done as a paid job, vs. that done by volunteers? We know that when people say that FOSS developers need funding, apologists immediately point out that most FOSS developers are actually paid by companies to work on FOSS. These people surely cannot be described as "volunteer" any more than an pro-football player can be called an amateur. Can you quantify how much influence those volunteers have on, for example, being able to block a release until certain accessibility requirements are met? Can any of these volunteers can tell IBM staff that there won't be a new Fedora release until the screen reader works? While on the other hand, can any of the paid IBM employees make that decision? > go fund his foundation How would my paltry ability to fund such work compare to the corporate influence of IBM? If this issue were so simple that a few people, or $100,000 could fix it, why hasn't it been done already? $100K is peanuts to IBM.

eesmith 2y ago

I'm pointing out that even if you dismiss his comments entirely, there are others making similar claims, and you have not addressed their (what seems to me) entirely valid criticisms. > what does the above have to do with anything? You said he blamed volunteers. Even if volunteers are blameless, he is also blaming IBM. Does IBM get to use volunteers as shields? Can you quantify what "volunteer" means? Like, when I read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Linux I see "Red Hat engineers, along with independent free software contributors have built most of the pieces for [Silverblue] over the last few years". Those engineers are clearly not volunteers. Can you quantify how much of the development is done as a paid job, vs. that done by volunteers? We know that when people say that FOSS developers need funding, apologists immediately point out that most FOSS developers are actually paid by companies to work on FOSS. These people surely cannot be described as "volunteer" any more than an pro-football player can be called an amateur. Can you quantify how much influence those volunteers have on, for example, being able to block a release until certain accessibility requirements are met? Can any of these volunteers can tell IBM staff that there won't be a new Fedora release until the screen reader works? While on the other hand, can any of the paid IBM employees make that decision? > go fund his foundation How would my paltry ability to fund such work compare to the corporate influence of IBM? If this issue were so simple that a few people, or $100,000 could fix it, why hasn't it been done already? $100K is peanuts to IBM.