A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

[woodsmoke]

It starts one way....the way that Linux like to hear that Linux can save the world....

but then veer off....

and then flatly states that "open source" was "lucky" in the U.S.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/open-source-...-339329909.htm

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

This bit caught my eye:

Nothing is more annoying, said Perens, than the complaining user who says that the software stinks, when he's never contributed anything himself.

I have always maintained:

--> If you don't vote, you don't get to gripe about who's in office.

But this would be silly thing to say:

--> If you didn't build your car, you don't get to gripe when it breaks down.

The difference, of course, is that we pay for cars, but we don't pay for politicians. (HAHAHA! Boy I got that one wrong! The people who actually do pay for politicians certainly seem happy! But I digress.)

If these two examples represent the ends of the continuum, where on the continuum does open source fit?

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

This bit caught my eye:

Nothing is more annoying, said Perens, than the complaining user who says that the software stinks, when he's never contributed anything himself.

I have always maintained:

--> If you don't vote, you don't get to gripe about who's in office.

But this would be silly thing to say:

--> If you didn't build your car, you don't get to gripe when it breaks down.

The difference, of course, is that we pay for cars, but we don't pay for politicians. (HAHAHA! Boy I got that one wrong! The people who actually do pay for politicians certainly seem happy! But I digress.)

If these two examples represent the ends of the continuum, where on the continuum does open source fit?

But we DON'T [generally] pay for Linux [or most other open source stuff]. The issue here is that not everyone who uses OSS is qualified to contribute to its development, just like not everyone who drives a car is qualified to build or repair a car. So where does that leave us? Well, those of us who aren't able to contribute in the literal sense (contributing to source code) can contribute financially, or perhaps in other ways (I don't know--volunteering time for advocacy, perhaps?). I donate all the time to the OSS causes near to my heart, including KDE, Mozilla, the GIMP, and others. So even though I didn't BUILD my car, I feel somewhat entitled to gripe when it breaks down. (I only drive Toyotas--I've never actually had one break down, but you get my point!)

[kubicle]

Re: A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

So where does that leave us? Well, those of us who aren't able to contribute in the literal sense (contributing to source code) can contribute financially, or perhaps in other ways (I don't know--volunteering time for advocacy, perhaps?). I donate all the time to the OSS causes near to my heart, including KDE, Mozilla, the GIMP, and others. So even though I didn't BUILD my car, I feel somewhat entitled to gripe when it breaks down. (I only drive Toyotas--I've never actually had one break down, but you get my point!)

Sounds reasonable.

IMO people can complain when "paying" with their time (although complaining is usually not the most productive way of getting an issue fixed).

Of course there is a difference between "spending time" and "paying with time", one is only paying with time if that time actually adds to the available resources of the developer (good bug reports would certainly qualify, as would other contributive actions).

Spending one's time is worth nothing to the developer (which means one is not really "paying" with it...just spending it).

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

The more I think about it, the more I see that we *ARE* paying for our OSS stuff--in subtle ways. For example, when we find a bug and we Bugzilla it, giving all the pertinent info (how/what/when/why/is it reproducible/etc.), we are contributing to its development. Or when we contribute a report to WineHQ so others will know if, or how well, a windoze app runs on Linux, that is contributing. So, yeah, there are other ways besides $$$ or source code.

[ardvark71]

Re: A rather uncomfortable, for Linux people speech by a Linux biggie

The more I think about it, the more I see that we *ARE* paying for our OSS stuff--in subtle ways. For example, when we find a bug and we Bugzilla it, giving all the pertinent info (how/what/when/why/is it reproducible/etc.), we are contributing to its development. Or when we contribute a report to WineHQ so others will know if, or how well, a windoze app runs on Linux, that is contributing. So, yeah, there are other ways besides $$$ or source code.

Hi all...

I disagree to an extent with the speaker mentioned in the article.

I don't think contributing with code is the only way to help out the Linux community. Those of us who help out at forums, such as this one, are providing a valuable resource, equally for free.

Regards...