4 ms·

Often times you can get a support for a stable OSS, and then you actually help the ecosystem by giving it resources

• hsn915 5y ago
  Unfortunately, the "pay for support" business model means the incentive is to make a system that needs support but pretends on the surface to be stable and high quality. One way to make a system so incomprehensible that your customers absolutely need support is to make it configurable in a million different ways, and make the configuration invisible / opaque. Example: "Why is this program doing this when I told it to do that?" Answer: Because this file in that directory configure service A to do X, and this other file in that other directory configures the program to behave like Y if it detects that service A is doing X. But the program does not tell you that via its UI; you have to read obscure documentation.
  • md8z 5y ago
    I don't understand, isn't the original complaint here that everything needs support eventually?
    • hsn915 5y ago
      Everything should not need support. The fact that most everything needs support is a symptom of how crazy the software industry is.
      • md8z 5y ago
        I keep hearing people say that, but how do you propose we write software that has no bugs and does everything perfectly right the first time? That seems impossible.
        • AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
          The first time? Sure, nothing ever gets it right the first time, but over time software should converge on being bug free and not requiring any support at all. Free-with-paid-support has a perverse incentive against this.
          • md8z 5y ago
            "over time software should converge on being bug free" Yeah, and the way that's done is by refactoring things, removing buggy/deprecated things, and not adding any more new features/requirements... So, pick your poison, I guess? I'd love to go move on to the next job as much as the next person, but somebody still has to be paid to do those things. I don't see what the significant difference is there with free-with-paid-support, if you pay for it up front you're still paying the same cost.
            • hsn915 5y ago
              All I hear is excuses. I'm not interestd in hearing excuses.
              • md8z 5y ago
                That seems dismissive and I don't know why you would be hearing that. If there is a way to do this that you think would not qualify as an excuse, then you should mention it, otherwise both of us are stuck to what we are limited to by these bodies that require rest and sustenance.
                • hsn915 5y ago
                  You're creating a false dichotomy: we can either add new features, or stabilize the current version, but we can't do both! Yes you can. You can spend some time to stabilize, and then add new features on top, then stabilize again if needed.
                  • md8z 5y ago
                    I am not saying that's a dichotomy, I mean this purely as a function of resources. Sure you can do both but that takes up twice as much time as if you only did one of them. So however much you want to do of either is really up to the project's management goals and what the customer is willing to pay for...