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I see a lot of disagreement with this post but I think it makes good points. It's hard for small developers who make useful things to get noticed on GitHub. Th

by vsroy 6y ago

I see a lot of disagreement with this post but I think it makes good points. It's hard for small developers who make useful things to get noticed on GitHub. The only hope is to get retweeted by some established user. This seems silly, we need better ways of making sure people can find/discover good software.

nexuist 6y ago
The problem is that open source software is inherently trust-driven. I wouldn't blindly execute any random code on my machine, but I execute code from people or companies I trust all the time. Of course I could review the whole repo, but that always takes time (and even then you're not guaranteed to not be hit by an intentional/unintentional vulnerability), and it comes down to "well, would me spending time vetting this be more valuable than just finding a more popular, more trusted alternative?" So it's hard to spotlight anonymous devs on their own, because you can't establish trust with someone who isn't known for anything yet.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  Seems like the openness of software is orthogonal to trust. Would you no longer trust an app only because its license became Open? Closed source seems to require more trust to me. I think trust is very difficult to manage and do some checking of owners of PPAs before using them -- containerisation can help, but doesn't prevent information gathering and other trust-breaking activities (backdoors, etc.).
onion2k 6y ago
For many people Github is a tool to use for work and nothing more. For others it's almost a social network. Making something that happily straddles both those use cases must be really difficult.
mytailorisrich 6y ago
GitHub offers a managed Git repo with project/bug tracking features. Although they've added plenty of trendy social network-y features that's what it is as its core. There's no silver bullet for "getting noticed" whether on Github or outside of Github.
lrem 6y ago
Who would search for useful software on Github in the first place? That's what app stores are for. Then, you contribute to whatever you feel is useful to you, using the Github link on the project's page.
- globular-toast 6y ago
  It's for developers. I mostly use it to find libraries, not "apps".

by vsroy 6y ago

nexuist 6y ago

The problem is that open source software is inherently trust-driven. I wouldn't blindly execute any random code on my machine, but I execute code from people or companies I trust all the time. Of course I could review the whole repo, but that always takes time (and even then you're not guaranteed to not be hit by an intentional/unintentional vulnerability), and it comes down to "well, would me spending time vetting this be more valuable than just finding a more popular, more trusted alternative?" So it's hard to spotlight anonymous devs on their own, because you can't establish trust with someone who isn't known for anything yet.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
Seems like the openness of software is orthogonal to trust. Would you no longer trust an app only because its license became Open? Closed source seems to require more trust to me. I think trust is very difficult to manage and do some checking of owners of PPAs before using them -- containerisation can help, but doesn't prevent information gathering and other trust-breaking activities (backdoors, etc.).

onion2k 6y ago

For many people Github is a tool to use for work and nothing more. For others it's almost a social network. Making something that happily straddles both those use cases must be really difficult.

mytailorisrich 6y ago

GitHub offers a managed Git repo with project/bug tracking features. Although they've added plenty of trendy social network-y features that's what it is as its core. There's no silver bullet for "getting noticed" whether on Github or outside of Github.

lrem 6y ago

Who would search for useful software on Github in the first place? That's what app stores are for. Then, you contribute to whatever you feel is useful to you, using the Github link on the project's page.

globular-toast 6y ago
It's for developers. I mostly use it to find libraries, not "apps".