Abiword: Support Expectations

bockman writes "Abiword developers have put up a letter, explaining what they expect from their user community and what the community should (and should not) expect from a volunteer-based open source software project like theirs. A much needed reality-check in these times when a large number of non-developers have joined the Linux users world." This is a must read for anyone who uses any open source software.

Comments

I have ony one request for all developers

[Lumpy]

Please oh please update the webpage and test rpm builds.

If a person were to want to get abiword and downloaded their redhat 7.1 rpm, they'd be instantly ranting on the mailing list as it does not work for any possible install of redhat 7.1.

In fact they need to remove all rpms except for the gtk version as that is the only rpm that actually works.

also, add a list of all libs that are needed in order to use the product.

I am glad they make abiword, but having rpm's or packages that dont work for anyone except the deveopler that made it causes most of the grief I see on the mailing list. 90% of all pissed users are users that cant get it to work because of the bad rpm's and packages.

hey, if you guys dont have time for keeping the website up-to date, I volunteer to do it.

RPM Doesn't work? FIX IT....

[TechnoVooDooDaddy]

don't go flaming the programmers, FIX IT! the source is all there ready to be tweaked. You got what you paid for, and that's nothing.. The good part is with a MINOR amount of tweaking, fiddling, etc. (compared to writing something like AmiWord yourself) you can have a FANTASTIC word processor for FREE! Behold the wonders of open-source.

Then you can post your fixed version and get flamed too..

joy

In Other Words

[quakeaddict]

....you get what you pay for.

Guess what, the general public doesn't want excuses. Corporate IT folks dont want excuses.

They just want to get their work done.

The general public simply does not care that a small group of developers spends an amazing amount of time developing Abiword.

They just want it to work, and they want to call someone when it breaks. They want some hope that someone will fix it or can tell them how to fix it, or more likely, how to do the same thing in a slightly different way.

If Linux wants to be on alot of desktops then this type of memo isn't going to get it too far.

low expectations

[jodonn]

We seem to have the opposite problem--expectations that are too low. I work as a software consultant doing J2EE applications. Often when we find ourselves dealing with a client who needs a small-scale web application done, we lay out their options for servers and pre-built solutions and they automatically reject all the free ones.

For some reason they have concerns about reliability. They'd rather pay $30K per CPU for BEA WebLogic then download JBoss for nothing, even if they only plan on supporting 100 users. I don't claim to understand it myself, but in corporate circles open source software has this stigma attached to it.

Right on!

[burtonator]

I wish more Open Source projects would do this.

I mean it is great that Open Source projects exist, and they really help out a lot of people but it is important that those who are benefited reciprocate.

It is really a tragedy of the commons.

With successful Open Source projects like Linux, you have TONS of companies which base billions of dollars of business on these products.

Yet at the same time the Engineers have NO way of making money just by writing code.

The only way they can pay the bills is by joining a larger company like IBM that can act as a patron so that they can continue their work.

There are many examples of this:

- Linus works for Transmeta
- Alan Cox works for RedHat

... etc

What we really need to see happen is the users directly supporting the developers of these products.

Instead of downloading AbiWord for free. Why not donate $2-$5 through PayPal.

This would provide the ability for a few developers to work FULL TIME on AbiWord (or whatever) without having to worry about corporate bias.

They would be directly working for the client instead of for an intermediary (like IBM or Transmeta).

Freenet is doing this

I just wish it would catch on...

Re:Can't have it both ways...

[sheldon]

Now wait a minute. Based off your User # you've obviously been reading slashdot for a while.

Don't you realize you are speaking heresy?

I think you've hit upon the fundamental problem with Open Source. It's not that Open Source is a bad thing, it can actually be quite good. But it's ridiculous to assume it will ever completely replace the commercial software market. Or even have a signifigant impact upon it because of consumer expectations.

I've never used AbiWord and don't know what it's like. But imagine what these guys could do if instead of giving it away for free, they sold it for $15 off their website.

It may not make them rich, but I'll bet that could provide a steady income for a handful of people who could work full time to continuously improve the product.

Furthermore, by charging $15 for a product, they limit their user base to only those people who feel the product is worth something. But they also will realize that it's substantially cheaper than Word and won't expect quite all the same features.

I think one of the problems with catering to just the whackos who think everything should be free, is that these people think stuff should be free because they identify no value with the product or really the developers time.

It's the old complaint about Welfare. When people receive $500/week from the government for not working, they don't see any value in actually working. Now not everybody thinks that way, but there is a substantial sub-culture of the world that does.

If I had a $ for every time I had this argument

[skrowl]

at 3 AM at Perkins or Dennys... I'd be rich.

This is THE major problem with Open Source software. Since you can't make money with it, you can't commit yourself to it full time. Therefore you get a whole bunch of people who sorta work on it rather than a real programming team.

What does this get you? Products like Abiword that, while nice, admit publically that they can't compete.

What you linux kids need is a micropayment system or SOME kind of way to support your "Forget capitalism, I must give away the product of hours and hour of my work" attitude. If you could make $40K/year while working on your open project, you could do it full time! THEN we'd see some nice word processors, web browsers, etc. for Linux and *BSD. Please don't moderate this down to troll or flaimbait as it raises very real points.

Re:Can't have it both ways...

[chihowa]

Actually, by charging $15 for their product, it ceases to be a free-time/hobby contribution and starts to be a product.

If they are only making $15 per copy, they can't quit their day jobs, but now they need to cater to the people who want a $15 MS Word replacement. If people are actually shelling out money for a product, they can feel better about demanding support or immediate bug fixes or the like. Small business doesn't get the same benefits of large business (being able to say, "Screw off, we don't want to add those features. They are plenty of other customers, you're no loss.")

At least until AbiWord get to 1.0, anyways, they really shouldn't charge anything for it. Maybe they could sell support, but I feel that involving money is a bad idea here and will only make things more hairy.

People really should learn what to expect from things that cost them nothing. When I get something for nothing, I appreciate when it helps me at all, I don't bitch when it doesn't constantly impress me.

Just my 2c, anyway