4 ms·

The beauty of FOSS is you can take your criticism and turn it into action by contributing to make it better!

by sbarre 13y ago

MichaelGG 13y ago
I'm not sure if this was sarcasm, or simple platitudes about open source, but this whole "contribute to make it better" is really a hit-and-miss affair. Best case scenario is that the code is clear, easy to update the UI, and the only reason it hasn't been done is because no one cares about the UI. That seems incredibly unlikely (the caring part - someone built it, maintains it, and will probably be upset if you "fix" it). On other projects, you first get a huge range of code complexity/quality, making contributing perhaps simply not feasible. After that, you can run into all sorts of stuff. My real world experience: "We won't take this because we use linked lists, not hashtables, because <original maintainer> likes linked lists." "We won't fix this broken XML parser because this code is fast." "Why did you fork and create those modules without telling us? That's really rude to all of us that spent so much time on this." (In response to an announcement a company had ported a project to another platform, and wanted feedback and was going to open all their work. They ended up just keeping it internally.) And some of that is on projects that are actually very friendly otherwise and to which I've contributed large and successful pieces. (To those involved if you happen to read this: you already know my criticisms ;)). In short, the whole "hey it's open so go fix it" is a rather trite simplification. It does not reflect the usual or even possible experience for the majority of users.
- sbarre 13y ago
  It wasn't really sarcastic, but it was my intention to point out that, unlike closed source, if your complaint about open source software UI means that much to you, you do have the option of actually putting your time where your mouth is, and helping solve the problem that is bothering you. Your personal anecdotes are less about the software being open source and perhaps more about a lack of coordination with the existing developers. Every time I've contributed to an OSS project, I've opened a dialogue with the existing team ahead of time and had my ideas vetted before I put in a bunch of work. That or (now in the Github era) they were tiny/trivial patches where I wouldn't mind if my pull requests get ignored. With closed source software that has shitty UI (and there's lots of that too), you have to just live with it...
driverdan 13y ago
Yes you can if you care enough. I don't read ebooks often and only open calibre a few times a year. My time and effort is better spent on projects I use frequently. Plus you're assuming I have enough knowledge about their underlying technologies to contribute. I don't know python and while I'm pretty good with UX and UI layouts I'm not a designer.
- sbarre 13y ago
  Indeed, "if you care enough" was exactly my point!

The beauty of FOSS is you can take your criticism and turn it into action by contributing to make it better!

by sbarre 13y ago

The beauty of FOSS is you can take your criticism and turn it into action by contributing to make it better!

I'm not sure if this was sarcasm, or simple platitudes about open source, but this whole "contribute to make it better" is really a hit-and-miss affair. Best case scenario is that the code is clear, easy to update the UI, and the only reason it hasn't been done is because no one cares about the UI. That seems incredibly unlikely (the caring part - someone built it, maintains it, and will probably be upset if you "fix" it). On other projects, you first get a huge range of code complexity/quality, making contributing perhaps simply not feasible. After that, you can run into all sorts of stuff. My real world experience: "We won't take this because we use linked lists, not hashtables, because <original maintainer> likes linked lists." "We won't fix this broken XML parser because this code is fast." "Why did you fork and create those modules without telling us? That's really rude to all of us that spent so much time on this." (In response to an announcement a company had ported a project to another platform, and wanted feedback and was going to open all their work. They ended up just keeping it internally.) And some of that is on projects that are actually very friendly otherwise and to which I've contributed large and successful pieces. (To those involved if you happen to read this: you already know my criticisms ;)). In short, the whole "hey it's open so go fix it" is a rather trite simplification. It does not reflect the usual or even possible experience for the majority of users.

sbarre 13y ago
It wasn't really sarcastic, but it was my intention to point out that, unlike closed source, if your complaint about open source software UI means that much to you, you do have the option of actually putting your time where your mouth is, and helping solve the problem that is bothering you. Your personal anecdotes are less about the software being open source and perhaps more about a lack of coordination with the existing developers. Every time I've contributed to an OSS project, I've opened a dialogue with the existing team ahead of time and had my ideas vetted before I put in a bunch of work. That or (now in the Github era) they were tiny/trivial patches where I wouldn't mind if my pull requests get ignored. With closed source software that has shitty UI (and there's lots of that too), you have to just live with it...

driverdan 13y ago

Yes you can if you care enough. I don't read ebooks often and only open calibre a few times a year. My time and effort is better spent on projects I use frequently. Plus you're assuming I have enough knowledge about their underlying technologies to contribute. I don't know python and while I'm pretty good with UX and UI layouts I'm not a designer.

sbarre 13y ago
Indeed, "if you care enough" was exactly my point!