3 ms·

As an open source maintainer, I can tell you that we appreciate the small fixes and updates that come from people just getting their feet wet. Even little thin

by Taek 7y ago

As an open source maintainer, I can tell you that we appreciate the small fixes and updates that come from people just getting their feet wet. Even little things like spelling mistakes, or fixing a bug in an infrequently used command line option go a long way towards a better overall product.

wiz21c 7y ago
As an open source user and (in the past, contributor), I wholeheartedly agree with that. The fact that a software has no bugs is what makes it a product I can rely on. For example, I'm a KDE user since 20 years. And although it has come a long way, there's always this little bug here or there. Because of that , I can't recommend it to some non IT user who's going to use it alone, I can't 100% trust it. So OP is right : fixing little bugs makes a incredible difference. (as far as KDE is concerned, kudo's to Nate Graham who's been looking at small issues for some times now and that really makes a difference)
- majewsky 7y ago
  If you cannot recommend KDE because "there's always this little bug here or there", you cannot recommend anything. When people prefer Windows over Linux, or macOS over Windows, or Linux over macOS, it's often because they don't want to exchange their well-known set of bugs for an exciting and unknown new set of bugs.
  - wiz21c 7y ago
    not as simple as that. For example, on debian buster, the Discover search bar doesn't work if used several times; the favorites in the start menu sometimes reappear after being deleted; when I quit kmail by using the windows close button, Kmail complains it exited in an unexpected way, etc. These are not little quirks, these are apparent in a normal daily usage. I use Windows at work and it's past those issues. But yet, I still prefer KDE because I prefer the whole myth of its creation (I say it's a myth because 1/ there's not much of a story 2/ even if it existed I'm 100% sure I didn't read it). I also prefer it over Windows and OSX 'cos it has things which are better : start menu is very clean, konsole works great, okular is super good, K3B just works,... So I'm not criticizing the work done by KDE, it's just the end result that is 98% good (which for me, as an experimented dev/user means 101%), not 99.9%. And while I'm at it, installing the next stable debian is always such an amazement to me. Things improve so much in stability and in those little bugs here and there. Having been a GPL/linux/... follower since almost 30 years, I can measure that. And it's soooooo great now... Can't believe that I've been able to see the whole thing happening. And now the pinephone thing is coming along... (that was the emotional minute, thx for your attention :-) )
    - emilsedgh 7y ago
      I had to login to my windows once. I had to install itunes to backup my phone. The button to install itunes was not working. It threw a very generic error message. And that seemed to be the only way to install itunes (Apple's webpages pointed to Windows store). Took me hours to find and install an alternative third party itunes installer from random untrusted sources. Windows, quality-wise, is simply unbearable for me in terms of usability, reliability, performance and UX. Disclaimer: I have had small contributions to KDE.
      - majewsky 7y ago
        Oh yeah, by the way, disclosure: Me too. :)
        emilsedgh 7y ago
        That's pretty awesome I actually remember you, you had contributions on KDE Games. I used to maintain some of the KDE websites including games.kde.org when I was young.

by Taek 7y ago

wiz21c 7y ago

As an open source user and (in the past, contributor), I wholeheartedly agree with that. The fact that a software has no bugs is what makes it a product I can rely on. For example, I'm a KDE user since 20 years. And although it has come a long way, there's always this little bug here or there. Because of that , I can't recommend it to some non IT user who's going to use it alone, I can't 100% trust it. So OP is right : fixing little bugs makes a incredible difference. (as far as KDE is concerned, kudo's to Nate Graham who's been looking at small issues for some times now and that really makes a difference)

majewsky 7y ago
If you cannot recommend KDE because "there's always this little bug here or there", you cannot recommend anything. When people prefer Windows over Linux, or macOS over Windows, or Linux over macOS, it's often because they don't want to exchange their well-known set of bugs for an exciting and unknown new set of bugs.
- wiz21c 7y ago
  not as simple as that. For example, on debian buster, the Discover search bar doesn't work if used several times; the favorites in the start menu sometimes reappear after being deleted; when I quit kmail by using the windows close button, Kmail complains it exited in an unexpected way, etc. These are not little quirks, these are apparent in a normal daily usage. I use Windows at work and it's past those issues. But yet, I still prefer KDE because I prefer the whole myth of its creation (I say it's a myth because 1/ there's not much of a story 2/ even if it existed I'm 100% sure I didn't read it). I also prefer it over Windows and OSX 'cos it has things which are better : start menu is very clean, konsole works great, okular is super good, K3B just works,... So I'm not criticizing the work done by KDE, it's just the end result that is 98% good (which for me, as an experimented dev/user means 101%), not 99.9%. And while I'm at it, installing the next stable debian is always such an amazement to me. Things improve so much in stability and in those little bugs here and there. Having been a GPL/linux/... follower since almost 30 years, I can measure that. And it's soooooo great now... Can't believe that I've been able to see the whole thing happening. And now the pinephone thing is coming along... (that was the emotional minute, thx for your attention :-) )
  - emilsedgh 7y ago
    I had to login to my windows once. I had to install itunes to backup my phone. The button to install itunes was not working. It threw a very generic error message. And that seemed to be the only way to install itunes (Apple's webpages pointed to Windows store). Took me hours to find and install an alternative third party itunes installer from random untrusted sources. Windows, quality-wise, is simply unbearable for me in terms of usability, reliability, performance and UX. Disclaimer: I have had small contributions to KDE.
    - majewsky 7y ago
      Oh yeah, by the way, disclosure: Me too. :)
      - emilsedgh 7y ago
        That's pretty awesome I actually remember you, you had contributions on KDE Games. I used to maintain some of the KDE websites including games.kde.org when I was young.