Re: Abi2.4.0: Maintaining Windows 9x

On Tue, 4 Oct 2005, Mark Richardson wrote:

> Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 16:58:22 -0700
> From: Mark Richardson <mrichard@usc.edu>
> To: abiword-user@abisource.com
> Subject: Abi2.4.0: Maintaining Windows 9x
>
>
> First a huge thank you to the developers for Abi 2.4.0.
>
> Next: In a recent heated discussion on Planet Abisource, someone (Hubert
> Figuiere or Martin Sevior?)

Presumably you are referring to the journal of Martin Sevior
http://www.livejournal.com/users/msevior/6157.html

http://www.livejournal.com/users/msevior/6157.html?thread=35341#t35341
Hubert addresses the issue of maintaining support for Windows 9X

> defended continuing to maintain Abiword for Windows 9x.

There are known issues and there are various people interested in
continuing support for older operating systems but it comes down to how
many people are willing to get invovled and help directly with the work.

Abiword is a community of volunteers and you can get involved and help
out. Abiword is not a crack commando unit sent to prison for a crime they
didn't commit, who escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los
Angeles underground, surviving as soldiers of fortune. If you have a
problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can
hire... THE A-TEAM"

//chanelling the ghost of EAzen for a minute there//

> The context was some glitches surviving in Abi 2.4. I for one
> want to thank the developers for spending great time and effort to
> continue supporting the older operating systems. There are lots of reasons
> for maintaining the support, practical but also philosophical: it helps in
> some small way to reduce Microsoft's power to coerce upgrades.

> If maintaning the older systems is a burden on the developers,

It definately is but with the help of testers who report problems and more
imporantly are willing to continue to provide feedback and help us verify
if problems have actually been solved the problem is a little less
difficult and the burden not quite so great.

> resulting in some imperfections in the latest Abi release (though I've
> found it to be very solid so far), I want them to know that the effort
> is much appreciated, at least by me.

I used to help out testing the nightly Windows builds, updating my copy
every few days and reporting any problems I could find before the releases
but I dont help out much anymore (now I mostly use Linux not Windows).
You really can help out by once or twice a week downloading a nightly
build and warning developers if any problems have been introduced. The
abiword developers are smart guys but not infallible and they cannot
think of everything so it really is important if lots of people can help
out in lots of little ways.

> Again, thanks for the great work.

Glad you enjoy Abiword, but you can really help make a difference even if
you aren't a programmer. I hope you will take this as encouragement and
find time to help out in any way you can.

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape http://inkscape.org
Abiword http://www.abisource.com
Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/
Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org

Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

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Received on Wed Oct 5 14:30:56 2005