Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer
by fusiongyro on Sunday September 17, 2017 @12:45AM
(#15268275)
There are three lemonade stands. Two of them are giving away free lemonade; the third is giving away a free lecture about why I shouldn't feel so entitled to free lemonade alongside charging me for theirs. Who's really confused about the economics of this situation?
Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer
by zbentley on Sunday September 17, 2017 @08:09AM
(#15269244)
That doesn't really have anything to do with GP, right?
I feel like this is a maybe-true comment on the link in general, but not the post you're replying to: entitlement/general nastiness towards open source maintainers is very common, as is the misconception about their degrees of commitment to their projects. That's true whether or not a project switches to a paid model, and whether or not maintainers post what you refer to as "lectures".
Re:The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer
by rocqua on Sunday September 17, 2017 @07:41AM
(#15269178)
You are angry about someone else making a mistake in your eyes.
His mistake (people moving away from his product) doesn't affect you, so your essentially drinking poison to spite someone else.
Alternatively, you think things should be free and get angry when people want to get something for their efforts.
To quote from the article:
> This was the worst part of this experience, and is akin to abuse. Demands or demanding comments stem from the misconception that users are entitled to FOSS. This behavior also stems from a misconception, but a different one: that open source maintainers depend on, or need, their open source projects.
For most maintainers or project owners, this is FALSE! > snip > as well as any comment insinuating that the maintainer is reliant upon a project that is not profitable or sustainable. Here’s the brutal truth for 99.9% (* not an actual figure) of open source projects, folks: you (the user of an open source project) need and rely on the project more than the maintainers do. Do not make the mistake of thinking that maintainers are emotionally tied to their projects. Definitely don’t call it their ‘baby’.