KDEvelopers on KDE Users

An anonymous reader writes: "KDE developers spent some time this week on their mailing list discussing what motivates them and the extent to which user concerns figure in their decisions. Dennis E. Powell's column on Linux and Main draws excerpts from the exchange, in which he participated, and says that he believes a lot more of this kind of discussion is needed."

Comments

Excellent points brought up by the article

[Sheetrock]

KDE got a lot of excellent programmers because it hit that certain momentum open source needs to survive (the point where you know the project is going to go on with or without you). I think that a lot gave up over the problems of maintaining backward compatibility, however. It's an ugly task, and one of the ones that doesn't particularly encourage anybody to work on it for the fun of it.

Someone said that Open Source will never effectively work on the desktop, because it's far too unstable; you can't program anything really useful for it without spending a lot of time and money nursing it through the inevitable changes the platforms around it create. I respectfully disagree, because I think that whenever there is a will, there's a way, and that when people need something, they're going to create it or maintain it.

There is a great deal of burnout being created by users demanding features in software that the developer isn't being paid for, too. KDE has mostly escaped this thus far, however there is some speculation that GNOME has more momentum because it's the underdog. Let's hope these two projects can continue to bring great things to the Linux desktop.

Open Source and Volunteers

[RebelTycoon]

I think what we need is an Open Source Appreciation day. People get burned out for several reasons, but the biggest has to be lack of appreciation and recognition.

Granted not ever OS developer craves attention, and some don't even desire it, but deep down its always welcome.

I'm not an OS developer, but being self-employeed, its sometimes hard to get motivated, other times its very easy.

The OS community needs to become much more appreciative to prevent burnout . The article says it best.

8. Acknowledge their work. A once-a-year banquet ain't gonna do it. Each individual volunteer needs to hear from you regarding what impact their donation of time and talent is accomplishing.

hobby or not - one would want to do it well

[indrek]

there were some points like "this is my hobby, my free time, I dont want to be critizised because of what I have done with it", which brought my attention. The user feedback - even in form of critics - is essential for this kind of hobby. If you dont want to be critizised - dont publish it, if you want to become better - ask for it. And if you want the community to answer to your requests, give something back and answer to their ones.
The good software meets its users needs. And hobby or not, if you want to be good in it, users feedback will only make you better.

True Story.

[mshiltonj]

A couple years ago, the alpha geek where I work, who has since moved on the do kernel hacking somewhere else, made an off hand remark that he hated it when people used the stuff he wrote.

"That's odd," I replied. "We write programs to solve people's problems."

"No," he shot back. "I code because I like to code. As soon as a user gets hold of it, all he does is start complaining and asking for more features."

Which is true enough, I've since learned. Users' wants are ill-defined as well as infinite.

This all reminds me of my Software Development Rules from a few months ago.