[ox-en] "Myths Open Source Developers Tell Ourselves"
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2004 20:29:39 +0200
Hi!
Some time ago a hint to
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/12/11/myths.html
appeared on [chox]. Worthwhile reading for a project like Oekonux.
I'll quote some pieces particularly true here:
*Myth:* Publicly releasing open source code will attract flurries of
patches and new contributors.
*Reality:* You'll be lucky to hear from people merely using your code,
much less those interested in modifying it.
From the few tiny software projects I set up there is next to no
response. The best "response" is checking the download statistics of
my personal web site and the subscriptions in FreshMeat.
The problem may be the definition of success. If your goal is to become
famous, open source development probably isn't for you. If your goal is
to become influential, open source development probably isn't for you.
Those may both happen, but it's far more important to write and to share
good software. Success is also hard to judge by other traditional means.
It's difficult to count the number of people using your code, for example.
Very, very true. This goes out to all who think writing Free Software
automagically raises the market value of a person.
*Myth:* Installation and configuration aren't as important as making the
source available.
*Reality:* If it takes too much work just to get the software working,
many people will silently quit.
Yep. I *always* look for an RPM first. I'm usually more ready to
install an RPM for another distro than to compile myself (this is also
because then it is in the RPM database).
*Myth:* Users don't mind upgrading to the latest version from CVS for a
bugfix or a long-awaited feature.
I for one did never check out from a CVS besides one project where I
contributed a complete file so it were easiest to use CVS.
Making your source code available to the world doesn't make all of the
problems of software development go away. You still need discipline,
intelligence, and sometimes, creative solutions to weird problems.
Fortunately, open source developers have more options. Not only can we
work with smart people from all over the world, we have the opportunity
to watch other projects solve problems well (and, occasionally, poorly).
Nice final words :-) .
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
_________________________________
Web-Site: http://www.oekonux.org/
Organization: projekt oekonux.de