Building On-Ramps on the Fedora 12 Highway

“It’s an orientation that Frields sees as central to the
GNU/Linux distribution’s rapid growth over the last five years, as
well as the focus in the new Fedora 12 release.

“”A lot of people jump to the conclusion that, because there’s
some polish [in Fedora 12] that we’re trying to appeal to the Joe
Average kind of user,” Frields says. “But the more correct way of
saying it is that we want a distribution that works really well for
our community members. We’re building a community of contributors,
as opposed to a community of consumers.”

“Frields explains, “If you look at any group, there’s going to
be 80-90% who will just take what they’re given. They’ll use it,
but it’s very rare that you get any feedback or participation from
those folks. That’s just how the consumer mind set works. What
we’re always trying to do is encourage people, to give them a
smooth on-ramp to move from that kind of mind set to the mind set
that free and open source software permits of getting
involved.”

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