The Ubuntu App Showdown • Hacker News Board

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#31

Post by wasd » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 5:09 PM UTC

illumen wrote: post #29

nuaccnt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. (Except as an unusual coincidence.) Picture from a python conference: http://www.efytimes.com/admin/useradmin/photo/Pycon-UK.jpg As in all the other pictures that appears from a google search it's >90% men. It's perfectly understandable that review panels will have >90% men on average, if they select for (presumably equally distributed among programmers) qualifications, passion and interest.

More than 50% of app purchasers are women, so there's definitely plenty of women who would be interested in doing this.

On Ubuntu?

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#32

Post by owaislone » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 5:15 PM UTC

mnazim wrote: post #28

My friend( http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=owaislone ) is doing a clone of Fluid App( http://fluidapp.com/ ). He made very good progress in past week and is currently working on proper desktop integration (notify-osd, unity integration, app indicator support) and userscripts support. I am really looking forward to it.

Reddit link http://www.reddit.com/r/ubuntuappshowdown/comments/vggkn/app...

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#33

Post by nuaccnt » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 5:25 PM UTC

illumen wrote: post #29

nuaccnt wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. (Except as an unusual coincidence.) Picture from a python conference: http://www.efytimes.com/admin/useradmin/photo/Pycon-UK.jpg As in all the other pictures that appears from a google search it's >90% men. It's perfectly understandable that review panels will have >90% men on average, if they select for (presumably equally distributed among programmers) qualifications, passion and interest.

More than 50% of app purchasers are women, so there's definitely plenty of women who would be interested in doing this.

If you want the average consumer to weigh in, fine. Look at download/purchase statistics, canvass users or do focus groups. If you want qualified, passionate and experienced programmers you're out of luck, those are mostly men. An overrepresentation (compared to the total number of candidates that would be good enough, of course some of them are women) it is bound to cost you something. Is having 50% (or whatever) women in open source related activity more important to you than having the best possible open source software?

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#34

Post by illumen » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 6:15 PM UTC

nuaccnt wrote: post #33

illumen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than 50% of app purchasers are women, so there's definitely plenty of women who would be interested in doing this.

If you want the average consumer to weigh in, fine. Look at download/purchase statistics, canvass users or do focus groups. If you want qualified, passionate and experienced programmers you're out of luck, those are mostly men. An overrepresentation (compared to the total number of candidates that would be good enough, of course some of them are women) it is bound to cost you something. Is having 50% (or whatever) wo…

More diversity in things like this does improve software. I learnt this at one of the fastest growing software companies in the world.

Do men know best what women want? No. Get women involved, and there is a better result.

If we don't begin to be inclusive, then Ubuntu will stay a closed mens club - and we will all be poorer for it.

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#35

Post by BHSPitMonkey » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 6:30 PM UTC

I'm a little concerned about this.

* It presents the idea of adding several dozen new rapidly-created "apps" to Ubuntu as a necessarily good thing. We don't need "more apps", we need better solutions, which IMO often means fewer apps.

* From the rules: "The application must contain exclusively original code and the Participant must be the original author of the content." This effectively limits library use to only what's in the default repositories, right? I suppose we're not allowed to use things along the lines of the Dropbox SDK?

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#36

Post by nuaccnt » Mon, Jun 25, 2012, 7:20 PM UTC

illumen wrote: post #34

nuaccnt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want the average consumer to weigh in, fine. Look at download/purchase statistics, canvass users or do focus groups. If you want qualified, passionate and experienced programmers you're out of luck, those are mostly men. An overrepresentation (compared to the total number of candidates that would be good enough, of course some of them are women) it is bound to cost you something. Is having 50% (or whatever) wo…

More diversity in things like this does improve software. I learnt this at one of the fastest growing software companies in the world. Do men know best what women want? No. Get women involved, and there is a better result. If we don't begin to be inclusive, then Ubuntu will stay a closed mens club - and we will all be poorer for it.

I'd say what for-profit companies do is the best indicator we have of the value of gender balance vs. just-making-something-people-want [to buy]--there's an imbalance in those too. Apple, for example, has an all male executive team. Microsoft has one woman (hr). Google has a few women (pr, hr/lobbying and marketing).

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/

http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/slt.aspx

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/programming-and-development...

I expect an objection that assumes for-profit businesses don't act rationally to maximize profit, I won't pursue that.

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#37

Post by desipenguin » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 6:16 AM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #9

mtgx wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wouldn't have much to gain from fighting against other Linux distros. It would be like fighting over breadcrumbs in the consumer market. It would be pointless. Their real competitor is Windows, and they should be using marketing and partnerships with manufacturers (Dell and others) and big app developers (EA, Valve, etc) and whatever is necessary to push Ubuntu/Linux more into the mainstream. If this is indeed t…

Many Linux distros (Mandrake especially) spent years trying to win market share by cloning Windows and didn't get very far. Turns out cheap looking Windows clone that can't run most Windows apps isn't really what the market is looking for. Of course they are inspired by what Apple is doing (so is pretty much everyone now, including MS) but I think Unity/Gnome3 are different enough to stand on their own merits (or lac…

"I'm not sure what Canonical would get out of a partnership with Dell though, since their software is free they aren't going to get a cut on units sold."

Canonical charges 20% transaction fee for each app sold http://developer.ubuntu.com/publish/commercial-software-faqs...

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#38

Post by keithpeter » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 9:53 AM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #22

Anyone doing a single column outliner with export to html/text and libreoffice? Like Acta for Ubuntu? Seriously, what Ubuntu Software Centre needs is a 'wanted app' system of some kind. Perhaps people say how much they would pay as well. Could be fun.

http://www.reddit.com/r/ubuntuappshowdown/

Turns out there is a place to post suggestions

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#39

Post by EliRivers » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 1:27 PM UTC

nuaccnt wrote: post #36

illumen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More diversity in things like this does improve software. I learnt this at one of the fastest growing software companies in the world. Do men know best what women want? No. Get women involved, and there is a better result. If we don't begin to be inclusive, then Ubuntu will stay a closed mens club - and we will all be poorer for it.

I'd say what for-profit companies do is the best indicator we have of the value of gender balance vs. just-making-something-people-want [to buy]--there's an imbalance in those too. Apple, for example, has an all male executive team. Microsoft has one woman (hr). Google has a few women (pr, hr/lobbying and marketing). http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/ http://www.micros…

"I expect an objection that assumes for-profit businesses don't act rationally to maximize profit, I won't pursue that."

Why not? Sounds like a valid objection that undermines your entire argument.

Re: The Ubuntu App Showdown

#40

Post by nuaccnt » Tue, Jun 26, 2012, 6:02 PM UTC

EliRivers wrote: post #39

nuaccnt wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say what for-profit companies do is the best indicator we have of the value of gender balance vs. just-making-something-people-want [to buy]--there's an imbalance in those too. Apple, for example, has an all male executive team. Microsoft has one woman (hr). Google has a few women (pr, hr/lobbying and marketing). http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/ http://www.micros…

"I expect an objection that assumes for-profit businesses don't act rationally to maximize profit, I won't pursue that." Why not? Sounds like a valid objection that undermines your entire argument.

It would be, if it was provably or probably true. I don't think it is. But I wasn't (and I'm not) going to spend an hour arguing the point.