After The GNOME Bounties, It's Mozilla's Turn

MikeCapone writes "Slashdot had an article about the GNOME bounties a few days ago, but now, thanks to the Shuttleworth Foundation (created by Mark Shuttleworth, the guy who went into the ISS as a Soyuz cosmonaut a couple of years ago), the Mozilla project also has some monetary incentives. The budget for 2004 is USD$100,000."

Comments

My Mozilla bounty

[SeanTobin]

For various annoying reasons I have to use hotmail for a great deal of my email. Recently, MS changed the hotmail interface so links to messages are done in javascript instead of regular HTML. This means that I can't control+click all my messages and have them open into tabs. Its been barely over 24hrs since they have done this and I'm already contemplating setting up a html-email/hotpop server localy just to get around this...

Anyway, to the point. Submit a (working) patch to mozilla that gets included and get a $50 amazon.com or thinkgeek gift certificate, or a paypal payment (minus fees).

The patch should:
-detect when javascript would open a new window
-If the link was to be opened into a new tab (via control-click, 3rd mouse button, or whatever option is set), open the link into a new tab instead of a new window
-have an option to open all new windows into a new tab
-This bounty expires at midnight GMT on 12/31/04. By which time I'll either have been annoyed to the point of death, or have been forced to setup an alternate solution.

Defuddle my email address and send me an email when its done. Also, if you know a better place to put this bounty, please reply. Mozilla.com should have a section for this...

Re:My Mozilla bounty

[jaywee]

The requested functionality is already done - as part of Tabbrowser extensions... here

Re:My Mozilla bounty

[larry bagina]

my bounty: I'm sick of clicking on links and not being redirected to goatse. I will pay $50.00 to anyone who can submit a patch to mozilla.org (and they accept it) so clicking on a link will randomly redirect me to http://goatse.cx. Ideally, the screen would also maximize and the back button would be disabled as well, and maybe a really loud beep so other people will know I'm a sick pervert.

Re:My Mozilla bounty

[Boing]

I don't think per-site patches are any way to fix a site with bad HTML and JavaScript

No, the problem is not hotmail, it's that the "one browser window" idea that tabs were supposed to make possible is not possible with respect to javascript-created windows. That has nothing to do with standards conformance, since "tabs" in themselves are not part of any web standard. They're just an adaptation of the "window" model into a better organizational system.

Re:My Mozilla bounty

[SeanTobin]

Just installed it. It has some great tab functionality - I'll enjoy using it. However it does not work on hotmail.

Hotmail uses JS to open the mail in the same window. If it opened into a new window, tabbrowser would be able to handle it. I probably should have been more descriptive in its horrible use of javascript.

Alright!

[ActionPlant]

It's about time. Not that small contributions haven't helped, but ever since the support was pulled for Netscape, things have rather been free floating (barring the Firebird project). It's terrific to see that there is a solid future for the development of one of the best IE alternatives out there.

Damon,

Re:Alright!

[Chalybeous]

You know, I think Mr. Shuttleworth has the right idea. Why? Well, the OpenSource community does include a few businesses, but my impression is that it's largely hobbyists.

Let me bring a comparison into play. On most CGI forums (I mean 3D CGI, not CGI scripting), a lot of people post requests for custom designs or images - for example, Star Trek fans with play by email RPGs, or fan clubs who want a poster image of their favourite ship. Some of the guys on these BBSs who do the 3D work produce stuff that's as good as you'd get from, say, Blue Sky, EdenFX, or the sadly departed Foundation Imaging - and they get people asking them to share it for free.
One artist of my acquaintance modelled interiors, and got so sick of people asking for freebies, he started charging $50 per "set". For that you got a few renders and the model he'd built for you (I think he had license terms). He had to do some work, but by the time he was building these rooms-to-order (mostly Star Trek-style bridge decks), he had a big stock of objects and textures - so he'd make a few bucks for a couple of hours' extra work, and the RPG owner (or whoever) would get what they wanted without having to invest in pro-quality CGI software, plus the time of learning it, plus... yadda yadda yadda.

Now, back to the OpenSource community. Same deal applies. Most OS developers are volunteers or hobbyists, I think; so they're giving up their time for free, for everyone else. What's wrong with giving them a financial incentive? Another poster in this thread offered $50 to solve a bug that's bothering him, and that's marvellous - $50 isn't a lot of money to most people, so while it may be a token offer, it makes a very nice gesture of appreciation for work done.
Mr. Shuttleworth is doing a great thing by offering financial backing to sort out things he'd like to see done. I admit, I'd like to see more financial incentives to general projects or targets, rather than such specific bugs and requests (maybe a donation to the Mozilla Foundation, or a favourite developer, or offering to help fund a particular distro or application), but the right steps are being taken.
In other words... it's laudable and it's a start. Let's hope the impetus grows from here.

Bounties for open/free software work...

[Doc Hopper]

Seeing this openly advertised gives me a great deal of hope for future open development efforts. Having some monetary incentive is a pretty big barrier to lots of programmers who are otherwise interested -- it's just the standard geek reward of "people will praise me for my effort" isn't enough for them.

In this particular case, the bounties appear to be for very specific features to existing products. Looks like it's working! But it seems the bounties are oriented solely toward individual programmers. I have to wonder how such a bounty would apply to larger-scale projects? I mean, for instance, what would the ramifications be of creating a bounty for a less-specific domain, or one in which there are numerous contributors so that one person couldn't solely claim responsiblity for the feature or program?

I suppose someone would have to decide how much effort each person put into the feature or program, and pro-rate the bounty to each person based on that decision. Could be a recipe for some hard feelings.

I think bounties are a great idea, but the way those bounties are implemented will make a pretty sizeable difference in developer response.

I like this approach, though. It's an individual, saying "I have a fund this large, and am willing to pay this much for these things to get done". Much better than some big corporate bid match-up service that falls flat on its face like some notables over the last few years...

Put an end to the free beer rides

[jaymzter]

I'm glad this is happenning. I was just thinking to myself (I win all my arguments that way) the other day about the perception that FOSS users won't pay for software and just want free as in beer. Of course to an extent that is true, but then it dawned on me that it's actually businesses that just want free beer.
The idea is constantly bandied about that FOSS programmers are just part time hackers with nothing better to do, but when you look at the quality of some FOSS projects that can't be true. It takes time and money. So why aren't companies like Sun and IBM making with the money to pay KDE to create a Micro-Soft like "Control Panel" for the desktop? Not that we may need one, it's only an example. Companies like IBM love to use Linux to nettle Micro-Soft and push their own agenda, but if they were serious about Linux on the desktop they'd put a bounty out for cohesive and intuitive applications that will help build a core of non technical users.

The German government took this route with Kroupware, and I just hope that Novell will do something like it with SuSE, but I still believe a serious sea change of perception and thought needs to take place in the corporate world. FOSS is a resource not only to push your other agendas, but can be harnessed relatively cheaply to get what you want. For those of us that can't code (yet) it doesn't matter if the source code is available, but it might be feasible to pay a developer to create a feature I want, maybe through a clearinghouse type website (any VCs in the house?). I know I'd pay if I had money for MozMail to be able to schedule the times it sent mail a la Outlook, and I even had someone ready to switch from Outlook until they discovered MozMail couldn't do that :-(
Enuff rambling, maybe this is just a start of the community bootstrapping itself and the corporate world will notice and loosen the purse strings...

Re:Mozilla Question

[Ieshan]

By default, Mozilla Firebird displays annoying error messages if a connection fails, instead of quitely displaying the error information in the browser window as Internet Explorer does. To turn off the error messages and use pages instead, add the following code to your user.js file: // Instead of annoying error dialog messages, display pages:
user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled ", true);

You can access your user.js file by typing about:config in your search box, assuming you're running Firebird [may work for the moz, not sure].

And it scales even better...

[zipwow]

If the system were set up so that you could contribute to a 'bounty', then the system would scale even better.

Some central board on a project, like the gnome project, would administer the bounties. If its bothering you, add to the bounty. Eventually its enough money to be a proper incentive.

Like the gnome bounties, the board itself would have to choose the best solution, so as a bounty contributor (the person sending the money) you'd give up that control. A minor giveaway, and something you probably don't have time to do anyway.

Sounds good to me.

-Zipwow