Comments on: The True Spirit of Open Source http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/ Enrico on programming, living, and everything in between Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:21:26 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Schalk Neethling http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-476 Schalk Neethling Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:04:32 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-476 Open Source software is driven by passion. You here have a person or a community of developers giving freely of their time to provide everyone with a solution that they otherwise would have to develop themselves. Instead of complaining about this and that, find a way to give back. In life people are always taking, taking, taking... Maybe it is time to say thanks and give something back. Kind Regards, Schalk Neethling OpenSource Release Feed Open Source software is driven by passion. You here have a person or a community of developers giving freely of their time to provide everyone with a solution that they otherwise would have to develop themselves.

Instead of complaining about this and that, find a way to give back. In life people are always taking, taking, taking… Maybe it is time to say thanks and give something back.

Kind Regards,
Schalk Neethling
OpenSource Release Feed

]]> By: Enrico http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-391 Enrico Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:38:54 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-391 @Ilia: I think that really depends on what the author's intent is in publishing it. Not every single piece of free and open source software is out there to gain market dominance and/or replace "evil" proprietary software solutions. Sometimes, a guy just wrote a thing and thought it might be somewhat useful to the world at large. Is it really a good idea to hold that guy to the same standards as you might hold, say, the entire Apache Foundation? I think that's dangerous because if you assert that every single time I decide to, for example, push a repository to GitHub, I am obligated to provide that level of maintenance and support, you can be damn sure that I will be pushing very few repositories. I don't want to be expected to spend a great deal of hours on work that doesn't have any value to me just to meet the expectations of every single person who uses my code. I could be spending that time making <em>new</em> things while others continue to contribute features and fixes to the stuff I used to maintain. So pushing the expectation of "product-quality" maintenance might actually <em>reduce</em> people's ability to innovate and provide even more value. @Ilia: I think that really depends on what the author’s intent is in publishing it. Not every single piece of free and open source software is out there to gain market dominance and/or replace “evil” proprietary software solutions. Sometimes, a guy just wrote a thing and thought it might be somewhat useful to the world at large. Is it really a good idea to hold that guy to the same standards as you might hold, say, the entire Apache Foundation?

I think that’s dangerous because if you assert that every single time I decide to, for example, push a repository to GitHub, I am obligated to provide that level of maintenance and support, you can be damn sure that I will be pushing very few repositories. I don’t want to be expected to spend a great deal of hours on work that doesn’t have any value to me just to meet the expectations of every single person who uses my code. I could be spending that time making new things while others continue to contribute features and fixes to the stuff I used to maintain. So pushing the expectation of “product-quality” maintenance might actually reduce people’s ability to innovate and provide even more value.

]]> By: marcos http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-387 marcos Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:13:39 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-387 MySQL, Glassfish , JBoss, they are all open source. Do you want support? Pay for it. Do you want a bugfix? Pay for it, or wait until they fix it (which may take a few years). You may try posting a question in their forums, and a kind user or developer may answer you out of the goodness of their hearts, but if you want technical support, then it won't matter if it's made by a team of engineers at Oracle or by Pete in his basement, you will have to open your wallet and pay for their time. MySQL, Glassfish , JBoss, they are all open source. Do you want support? Pay for it. Do you want a bugfix? Pay for it, or wait until they fix it (which may take a few years). You may try posting a question in their forums, and a kind user or developer may answer you out of the goodness of their hearts, but if you want technical support, then it won’t matter if it’s made by a team of engineers at Oracle or by Pete in his basement, you will have to open your wallet and pay for their time.

]]> By: Ilia Jerebtsov http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-379 Ilia Jerebtsov Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:20:02 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-379 The trouble is that the flag bearers of OSS are hard at work at constantly evangelizing and declaring that OSS is so much better than everything else, and that everyone should switch from those horrible closed corporation products to the world of openness and community and blah blah. This creates an expectation that the OSS movement is trying to pass OSS software as something serious, and on the level or better of a commercial product. So naturally us users will have certain expectations of it, usually to our own disappointment. Naturally I understand that "the OSS movement" is not what "the spirit of OSS" really is, but at this point it's presumed by default that the act of publishing a piece of software symbolizes that you want people to actually use it (otherwise why would you do it? To stroke your ego?). And if so, then you should expect that people will treat you to the same standards as any other "serious" software publisher. What with the program having to be, you know, good. And having support and all that. So Robert really shouldn't be surprised that he finds himself surrounded with people demanding things from him. The way he ranted that he wants no responsability over the monsters he unleashed on the world, makes it look like he doesn't give a damn about having a userbase at all. If he doesn't want anything to do with the programs that he published, he should either stop doing that, or make it perfectly clear that he doesn't want anyone to use them, and the binaries/source are just there to decorate his website. Maybe a large notice with a middle finger would be appropriate, because that's what he's basically doing to his userbase. The trouble is that the flag bearers of OSS are hard at work at constantly evangelizing and declaring that OSS is so much better than everything else, and that everyone should switch from those horrible closed corporation products to the world of openness and community and blah blah. This creates an expectation that the OSS movement is trying to pass OSS software as something serious, and on the level or better of a commercial product. So naturally us users will have certain expectations of it, usually to our own disappointment.

Naturally I understand that “the OSS movement” is not what “the spirit of OSS” really is, but at this point it’s presumed by default that the act of publishing a piece of software symbolizes that you want people to actually use it (otherwise why would you do it? To stroke your ego?). And if so, then you should expect that people will treat you to the same standards as any other “serious” software publisher. What with the program having to be, you know, good. And having support and all that. So Robert really shouldn’t be surprised that he finds himself surrounded with people demanding things from him.

The way he ranted that he wants no responsability over the monsters he unleashed on the world, makes it look like he doesn’t give a damn about having a userbase at all. If he doesn’t want anything to do with the programs that he published, he should either stop doing that, or make it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want anyone to use them, and the binaries/source are just there to decorate his website. Maybe a large notice with a middle finger would be appropriate, because that’s what he’s basically doing to his userbase.

]]> By: marco http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-378 marco Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:57:31 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-378 I write a ton of open and free software and the last reason on my list is altruism. Nature does not recognize entitlement so screw your altruism. I do it because I can; nothing else. I write a ton of open and free software and the last reason on my list is altruism. Nature does not recognize entitlement so screw your altruism. I do it because I can; nothing else.

]]> By: Enrico http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-373 Enrico Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:07:50 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-373 Yes, such "emotional baggage" really only applies to "free software" and not all open source software is "free". This was pointed out by a Redditor and I've added a note to concede the point. Yes, such “emotional baggage” really only applies to “free software” and not all open source software is “free”. This was pointed out by a Redditor and I’ve added a note to concede the point.

]]> By: Rick http://www.liveandcode.com/2009/08/12/the-true-spirit-of-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-371 Rick Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:44:18 +0000 http://www.liveandcode.com/?p=176#comment-371 The problem is that you start using terms like "the spirit" of open source. Until you get over your emotional baggage with open source, you'll never get it. The problem is that you start using terms like “the spirit” of open source. Until you get over your emotional baggage with open source, you’ll never get it.

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