Ethan Blanton (a gaim/c developer) scares me

I'm a list lurker on gaim-devel; and I don't usually read too much of it.

gaim is my one decent alternative to MSN, and it's good.

It's comments like this (emphasis is mine):

Almost a good point. Note that I don't care if there is *ever* a
build for Windows, or if it's ever updated, or if anyone ever uses it.
I am in favor of discontinuing Windows support, and have been from the
start.

Regardless of that, Windows Gaim is almost a different proposition
with respect to this debate ... it's even more beta than Unix Gaim
(largely because Windows is so horribly broken), as are the libraries
it depends on. It's probably inevitable that Windows users would have
to follow releases a bit more closely to stay on top of the bug game.
(NB: I know someone is going to come back and say something like "but
Windows users are users who need the bugfixed 'stable' releases most!"
or some crap ... see the previous paragraph. They can go buy a real
computer if they want.)

... which make me think twice about using it internally at my work.

What the hell world do C c developers live in? They seem so disconnected from end-users; it's astonishing. The world runs windows. Doing some development in windows is hard. Providing a shitty product for windows is easy. Getting your users to hate you is even easier.

For me, the reason I like open source and contribute back to projects is simple. It's the idea that I'm adding value to the world. I'm making life easier for someone - if it's myself; or someone suffering the same problems as I; I'm helping.

I don't think some people think of open source like that at all...