Kevin's musings

The release of Fedora 15 is just around the corner (this tuesday, 2011-05-24)!

As always, we will be having a on-line release party over in #fedora-social on irc.freenode.net.

Please join us in celebrating the release…

It’s that time again: Fedora election season. The Fedora Board and The Fedora Engineering Steering Committeeare open to nominations until tomorrow.

I have no desire to serve on the Fedora Board, but I’ve been on FESCo since it was the Fedora Extras Steering Committee. So, thinking about running again brought up many thoughts:

• I think I do a good job keeping FESCo on track and productive
• I think I do good keeping FESCo open and operating in the light
• I do think new blood, energy, ideas would be welcome.
• I for the most part enjoy working on FESCo matters
• I have perhaps less time than I have in the past, what with the new job

Given all that, I have decided to run again, but possibly see if I can’t pawn off the chairpersonship on someone else if I am re-elected. I will let the voters decide if they would like to see me continue or would prefer some new folks joining in.

As always, I am happy to talk with folks about anything. Feel free to comment here, shoot me an email or catch me on IRC. I’m sure I will also be participating in the town halls, so feel free to save up questions for that as well.

If you have time, energy and new ideas for FESCo, do consider running.

The Board race this time should be interesting. There’s a number of new faces and ideas and folks I know and have worked with. I look forward to talking with Board candidates as we move forward in the elections. Good luck to everyone who is willing to step up and make things better!

Merlin is very slowly improving. He can stand up on his own, and sometimes he can lay down on his own too. A few days ago he started eating small amounts (we have been giving him canned puppy food mixed with water), although we are still feeding him through his stomach tube. His poop is almost back to normal as well, which is great news! I’m looking forward to the time we can leave him alone for the night so we can both get some sleep.

He also really really needs to gain weight. He is down to about 50lbs, when he should be upper 60′s or lower 70′s. ;(

I’ve lately noticed an increase in what I call “Drive by reviews”.
They say that “first impressions are lasting impressions” and I can understand that. Everyone wants to make a good first impression and it takes a lot to overcome a bad one. However, I’ve seen more folks of late instead taking a first impression of something as a only impression, or over-generalizing based on one first impression.

A good example of this happens all the time to restaurants. How often have you heard someone say: “I went to that new restaurant and I am never going to go there again”? When asked for more details how often do they say:

• The line was long and we didn’t want to wait
• The service was slow
• The waiter carded me! (asked for ID for a adult beverage)

Of course there are many great reasons for not wanting to go back, but thinking logically about some of the above makes me at least think that I would give the place another try. Long line? It was just opening and you have no data at all what the place was like, you never even went in. Slow service? Just opening and getting the hang of things. Carded? Perhaps their is a law they are following to do so. Bad mood? Stomach ache? Ordered the wrong thing? A host of issues that could well be solved if you give the place another try in a few weeks.

Another trend seems to be “I went to $foo and didn’t like it, so I am never going to another $foo again”. Sure, some things would be the same or very similar in other restaurants in a chain, but others would not be. Is your reasoning related to one of those variables?

Which brings me to the Fedora/Linux tie in here. Every few months I see a sad tale of someone who tried the Fedora {mailing lists|forum|irc channel} and had a bad first impression, which leads to a “I am never going to use {Linux|Fedora} again!”. Please take a few moments to think logically and not judge an entire Linux distribution or Operating system based on one forum post, email or 5 minutes in an IRC channel. Do some research, work on explaining your problem better or in a different way, try a different support channel, or at the very least note that your impression is based on only one single drive by. It’s hard to overcome a bad first impression, but do consider giving more than a single chance.