[mythtvnz] TV1+1 freeview.xml header update?

[Nick Wallingford]

On 04/07/12 17:41, Steve Hodge wrote:
> Install complexity. Remote permissions for MySQL is one of the perennial
> issues that people have, it's come up on this list more than once. And
> note that the recent leap-second bug was triggered by MySQL, not MythTV
> itself. Versioning issues. As a Gentoo I was affected by the change in
> default character set that happened between versions awhile back and
> that was a big issue for some. Most users want mythtv to be an
> appliance. They don't want to have administer a database.
>
>  From memory, speed was actually one of the big reasons why they have
> stuck with MySQL, and if they do go embedded it'll probably be an
> embedded MySQL. Some of the scheduler queries are complex and slow. Also
> at the moment with database access spread through all the client apps
> and the system is closely tied to MySQL. There was some work done on a
> PostgreSQL port but the devs have flatly stated that the won't commit
> anything like that.
>
>     But the argument that users might break it doesn't fly for me. So
>     what if they do? It's their problem. If the solution means less
>     functionality for me then I'm dead set against it.
>
> If you want your open source project to be successful you need to build
> a community around it. Telling users "it's your problem" is a good way
> to fail at that. And users having bad experiences put other users off.
> That said I think the motivation is not so much to protect users from
> themselves as to protect users from out of date third party tools.

I think Steve has it pretty well pegged, esp. in the last para.

Another open source project I'm involved in (genealogy software) faces 
similar issues.  Currently, the database is mostly 'untouchable' - but 
there is a constant undercurrent of users wanting to be able to access 
it directly, converting it to MySQL or whatever.

Version changing of utilities provides enough challenges, but once the 
users can actually start making direct changes, the calls for support 
will, I believe, increase exponentially.  Ah, well...

Nick
Tauranga