Did any of you read the article? It has nothing to do with which editor is better, using motif or not, etc.
The topic is what is it like to lead a low profile OSS/FS project.
For quite some time, I was heavily involved in a lesser known OSS project, having written the core component for the project. Frankly, it was my experience that all the virtues that are touted by the usual OSS supporters don't apply. You don't get many eyes looking at the source. In fact, it seems that you get quite the opposite -- you get all the users who simply whine that you have a bug and demand it to be fixed. Some even go as far as to tell you how to fix it, but have never looked at the code so you get suggestions to modify code that is nowhere in the project. Mailing lists for the project seemed to be populated mainly by lurkers and only the very vocal minority seemed to communicate -- usually in off topic discussions.
Given this somewhat dismal experience I had, has open source helped the project? Has there been much in the way of good feedback or is all the testing, bug fixes and additions of features done by the core team?
Also, given the amount of work it takes to bring an OSS project to fruition, would you do it again knowing that it may not be very popular?
Compaq Tru64 development in New Hampshire and New Jersey hires interns. This is the original Digital Unix, aka OSF/1, development organization and it's growing. Go to http://vcmproapp04.compaq.com/jobs/college/intern. html for intern information.
Slashdot Mirror
Did any of you read the article? It has nothing to do with which editor is better, using motif or not, etc. The topic is what is it like to lead a low profile OSS/FS project. For quite some time, I was heavily involved in a lesser known OSS project, having written the core component for the project. Frankly, it was my experience that all the virtues that are touted by the usual OSS supporters don't apply. You don't get many eyes looking at the source. In fact, it seems that you get quite the opposite -- you get all the users who simply whine that you have a bug and demand it to be fixed. Some even go as far as to tell you how to fix it, but have never looked at the code so you get suggestions to modify code that is nowhere in the project. Mailing lists for the project seemed to be populated mainly by lurkers and only the very vocal minority seemed to communicate -- usually in off topic discussions. Given this somewhat dismal experience I had, has open source helped the project? Has there been much in the way of good feedback or is all the testing, bug fixes and additions of features done by the core team? Also, given the amount of work it takes to bring an OSS project to fruition, would you do it again knowing that it may not be very popular?
Compaq Tru64 development in New Hampshire and New Jersey hires interns. This is the original Digital Unix, aka OSF/1, development organization and it's growing. Go to http://vcmproapp04.compaq.com/jobs/college/intern. html for intern information.