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Did not like. About half the things on that list will cause releasing something to take longer. Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for othe

Did not like. About half the things on that list will cause releasing something to take longer. Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for other potential developers is a day your competitors gain on you. Also the open source benefits are claimed as a fact, i.e. you open source and this is what you get. But that's not how it works. Have a look at freshmeat, sourceforge, etc. at all the abandoned projects. If you open source your code you wont automatically get coders dreaming of making your code better. You might if you become popular on your own but if you can become popular on your own do you really need open source? Is the potential that if you do everything right someone might write Instapaper integration for you worth the potential that competitors might harvest the best part of your app and create a product from it that takes all your sales? Open source has its place to be sure and I contribute when I can. I just don't think it's place is "everywhere".

xentronium 16y ago
> About half the things on that list will cause releasing something to take longer. Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for other potential developers is a day your competitors gain on you. Excuse me? Shouldn't you normally make your code pretty enough for you and other developers inhouse to support?
- alexro 16y ago
  You don't have to make your code pretty to be a successful company, think about Microsoft and other huge code factories for instance.
  - xentronium 16y ago
    Error ratio per KLOC is actually quite low in Microsoft.
fauigerzigerk 16y ago
Agreed. I think on the continuum from general infrastructure kind of code to end user applications, the place of open source is on the infrastructure end. It's useful to opensource code that many people can and should reuse.
j_baker 16y ago
"Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for other potential developers is a day your competitors gain on you." So ... Don't make your code "pretty"? Perhaps instead you should focus on making your code easy for other people to work on. You don't intend on always being the only person working on it do you?

xentronium 16y ago

> About half the things on that list will cause releasing something to take longer. Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for other potential developers is a day your competitors gain on you. Excuse me? Shouldn't you normally make your code pretty enough for you and other developers inhouse to support?

alexro 16y ago
You don't have to make your code pretty to be a successful company, think about Microsoft and other huge code factories for instance.
- xentronium 16y ago
  Error ratio per KLOC is actually quite low in Microsoft.

fauigerzigerk 16y ago

Agreed. I think on the continuum from general infrastructure kind of code to end user applications, the place of open source is on the infrastructure end. It's useful to opensource code that many people can and should reuse.

j_baker 16y ago

"Every day you delay trying to make your code "pretty" for other potential developers is a day your competitors gain on you." So ... Don't make your code "pretty"? Perhaps instead you should focus on making your code easy for other people to work on. You don't intend on always being the only person working on it do you?