The secret life of open source developers
- Ian Turton, Astun Technology
[email protected] @ijturton
- Andrea Aime, GeoSolutions
[email protected] @geowolf
Disclaimer
Our bosses have no idea what we are about to say, these our personal views
Open Source has an image problem
Commits by Contributor
What we do...
- Work
- Code
- Family
- Sleep
Andrea's timetable
I like open source, but once it's no longer a toy project, it should be maintained by paid programmers, rather than volunteers.
Andrew Grim, @andrewjgrimm
Also, "why should I pay for your free software!" - the majority of users.
Developers have to eat
Maintainer Burnout
- answer questions on mailing list
- answer questions on stackexchange
- review pull requests
- answer "questions" on bug list
- answer "questions" on twitter
- write code
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt. — ABRAHAM LINCOLN
NOTE: You must match your GeoServer plugin to a version, hence the download page.
"Why don't they test XXX before they release it?"
There is no "they" in community
Open Source Software is a Do-ocracy
- If you want something tested (or fixed) then you need to do it.
- If you have hardware or an OS that I don't then you need to test it.
- If you would like me to do it for you (or explain to you how to do it), then be polite.
GPL is Clear
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, ... PROVIDE THE PROGRAM “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, ... THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
Conclusions
We probably haven't changed anyone's mind today, but hopefully we have made you think a little more about the developers that make and support your software.
We really think of you as part of our community rather than customers, you need to think the same. When we say did you test that? or would you like to help fix it? we are being helpful!