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I specifically chose Chromium (or another browser) because it is one of the few pieces of open source software that normal people would have direct experience u

I specifically chose Chromium (or another browser) because it is one of the few pieces of open source software that normal people would have direct experience using. Seeing your fixes shipped to you and your friends' browsers is an awesome motivational tool. It's true that it's harder, but it seemed like a reasonable trade-off. My main concern with picking a browser wasn't the difficulty it was the expense of having a good machine to work with. Sadly this applies to all browsers that I'm aware of. Building Mozilla is terrible. WebKit is probably the best; it just contains less code (you only build the rendering engine when you work on WebKit, not the browser).

swombat 16y ago
Granted, but the learning curve to pick up all that's required to becoming an active committer to the Chrome codebase (command line, VCS, UI programming, OOP, Pointers, C++, and so on) is more like a vertical cliff than a curve. Out of 1000 non-CS people who try to do this I'd be surprised if even 10 make it through to compiling the Chrome source, and I'll be stunned if even 1 makes it through to the end of your "5-step plan". It's a noble aim, and the idea in general is right (learn to program and contribute to open-source software) (though I can't quite agree with considering their education a "sunk cost" - you need to build on what you have or you'll always be disadvantaged), but there are better, easier ways to achieve that objective than going straight from "I've never seen water in my life" to jumping into a pool infested with shark, mutant piranhas and man-eating giant squids.
- dmethvin 16y ago
  > I'd be surprised if even 10 make it through to compiling the Chrome source, and I'll be stunned if even 1 makes it through to the end Isn't that part of his goal, though? It's great to find people who are that passionate about the work. Somewhere out there a developer is drooling to work on a browser project and would be in heaven if they could prove themselves good enough to make the team.
  - swombat 16y ago
    I'd argue that in this case, he's not helping them (the 1000) to get a job, he's helping himself (the Chrome developer) to get an extra committer or two.
- wh-uws 16y ago
  But everyone of them who does would have proved they have the skill to get hired in the industry we all hold so dear. Getting a job is what they are after right?
VladRussian 16y ago
>Building Mozilla is terrible. you should have tried building it in 1999. Last time i did it - in 2007 - it was a blast compare to 1999.

swombat 16y ago

Granted, but the learning curve to pick up all that's required to becoming an active committer to the Chrome codebase (command line, VCS, UI programming, OOP, Pointers, C++, and so on) is more like a vertical cliff than a curve. Out of 1000 non-CS people who try to do this I'd be surprised if even 10 make it through to compiling the Chrome source, and I'll be stunned if even 1 makes it through to the end of your "5-step plan". It's a noble aim, and the idea in general is right (learn to program and contribute to open-source software) (though I can't quite agree with considering their education a "sunk cost" - you need to build on what you have or you'll always be disadvantaged), but there are better, easier ways to achieve that objective than going straight from "I've never seen water in my life" to jumping into a pool infested with shark, mutant piranhas and man-eating giant squids.

dmethvin 16y ago
> I'd be surprised if even 10 make it through to compiling the Chrome source, and I'll be stunned if even 1 makes it through to the end Isn't that part of his goal, though? It's great to find people who are that passionate about the work. Somewhere out there a developer is drooling to work on a browser project and would be in heaven if they could prove themselves good enough to make the team.
- swombat 16y ago
  I'd argue that in this case, he's not helping them (the 1000) to get a job, he's helping himself (the Chrome developer) to get an extra committer or two.
wh-uws 16y ago
But everyone of them who does would have proved they have the skill to get hired in the industry we all hold so dear. Getting a job is what they are after right?

VladRussian 16y ago

>Building Mozilla is terrible. you should have tried building it in 1999. Last time i did it - in 2007 - it was a blast compare to 1999.