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Myths About Open Source Development
jpkunst writes "A thought-provoking article by chromatic on oreillynet, listing eight "myths" that Open Source developers tell themselves. For example: 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."
writing open source software will get me laid!
It's a myth. And here's a proof: /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/arcnet.txt :
A few words from a desperate open source coder...
Since no one seems to listen to me otherwise, perhaps a poem will get your
attention:
This driver's getting fat and beefy,
But my cat is still named Fifi.
Hmm, I think I'm allowed to call that a poem, even though it's only two
lines. Hey, I'm in Computer Science, not English. Give me a break.
The point is: I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to hear from you if
you test this and get it working. Or if you don't. Or anything.
ARCnet 0.32 ALPHA first made it into the Linux kernel 1.1.80 - this was
nice, but after that even FEWER people started writing to me because they
didn't even have to install the patch.
Come on, be a sport! Send me a success report!
(hey, that was even better than my original poem... this is getting bad!)
WARNING:
--------
If you don't e-mail me about your success/failure soon, I may be forced to
start SINGING. And we don't want that, do we?
(You know, it might be argued that I'm pushing this point a little too much.
If you think so, why not flame me in a quick little e-mail? Please also
include the type of card(s) you're using, software, size of network, and
whether it's working or not.)
My e-mail address is: apenwarr@worldvisions.ca
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
When was the last time you told a developer how her work solved your problem?
Umm... how about never? Well I sure don't know any female developers anyway.
Fuck, that explains it!
/porn share so full!
I thought it might be paralyzing social fear. But it's the karma whoring that leaves my dance card so empty, and my
Hey freaks: now you're ju
This is your old boss. The fact that the system used Tcl is not relevant. You were fired due to the fact you would not wear pants in the office and walked around asking people to pet the elephant.
If the oil light comes on, and you don't stop immediately, you will stop in a very expensive way seconds later.
False.
The oil light in my 1990 trooper used to come on regularly because of low oil pressure. After I while, I quit topping it off, always thinking "I'll take care of it tomorrow." The situation went on for weeks before the engine finally siezed.
Of course, the above is strong evidence that I am an idiot.
but not a single person has contacted me and offered to help develop or debug the code.
An optimist would say that this is because your code, through some bizarre statistical anomoly, is perfect and doesn't need any further development or debugging.
A pesimist would say that you are the only one in the world who cares about spectral synthesis of stars undergoing quakes.
Our code has to compile clean on Redhat and solaris, AND lint clean
You lucky shit! Our code had to compile on Windows!
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.
No, they will quit and then bitch about it on slashdot. :)> Oh the perils!
And part of me immediately wants to ask: if there were many more core developers for the Perl language, do you think Perl would necessarily be the better for it?
You're right. Confusion would reign. The language syntax would become well-nigh unreadable.
Oh, right. Heh.
--saint