Re: Advantages/Disadvantages of Open Source Software (Was Re: Package grub-xen-host breaks PV domains with 11.5 point release)
On 9/14/2022 11:01 PM, Maude Summerside wrote:
>
> On 2022-09-14 21:45, Michael Stone wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 11:16:00PM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> >> I'll be brutally honest: being accused of "possibly malicious"
> >> unwilligness is *not* a great way to convince overstretched volunteers
> >> to spend their time on issues.
> >
> > Especially when it's an ongoing pattern of discourse.
> >
>
> I think there's many barrier that discourage people from wanting to
> contribute to many project. I feel some developer use the community as
> unpaid beta tester but don't go further into accepting contribution.
>
> For sure, having managed some project, I have to say that it's hard to
> accept contribution that will add new functions to as software when
> these come from a unknown contributor. Not because of being scared of
> malicious intent (unless the person is really paranoid but that's
> another story). Simply because adding a new function means having to
> support it's ongoing development and there's no guarantee that the
> contributor will do so. Same goes on for code contributed that needs
> refactoring, that are badly documented, etc. But all this need some good
> social behavior from the project owner/manager.
As a user of the Debian software and a user of the BTS, I am discouraged not
because new contributions or functions are being rejected, but because bugs
are not being fixed. Those are two very different things. Maybe it's just too hard
for volunteers to fix the bugs and make Debian better, and maybe we need to
pay the volunteers so they are not volunteers anymore and will be motivated
to actually fix the Debian software. The fact that Debian is created by volunteers
is probably one of the really big disadvantages of Debian software.
Best regards,
Chuck
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