On the surface, the open source software community has never been better. Companies and governments are adopting open source software at rates that would’ve been unfathomable 20 years ago, and a whole new generation of programmers are cutting their teeth on developing software in plain sight and making it freely available for anyone to use. Go a little deeper, however, and the cracks start to show.
The ascendancy of open source has placed a mounting burden on the maintainers of popular software, who now handle more bug reports, feature requests, code reviews, and code commits than ever before. At the same time, open source developers must also deal with an influx of corporate users who are unfamiliar with community norms when it comes to producing and consuming open source software. This leads to developer burnout and a growing feeling of resentment toward the companies that rely on free labor to produce software that is folded into products and sold back to consumers for huge profits.
The Free Rider Problem rears its head again?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @10:36PM (6 children)
They mooch on orgs that have attracted funding based on the free labor of developers and blow the money on discriminatory programs run by their equally useless friends. Is this sustainable?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @10:39PM (1 child)
If you can fork it, yes.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:26AM
Have you seen the typical SJW? I don't think I could get drunk enough to want to fork one of them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @10:50PM (1 child)
Really the only thing to do is move on and watch them turn on each other.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:54AM
Inevitable but unnecessary chemo:- Intersectional SJW cancer should have been irradiated from the outset.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @11:57AM (1 child)
SJWs are only a tool. Look for what they fight and you'll see that they protect particular interests. If discrimination will make profit for companies, this is suddenly not discrimination and it's OK to do everything with such people.
Currently they're used to force "corporate" style into free software, which, when was built by hackers, was rather incompatible with corporate methods. We can see it especially in a recent rescission of GPL events. Then manipulation into closing the code and making it proprietary and commercial will be simple. We already had such "free media extinction" event: With Internet changing its form from bidirectional medium (everyone got a space for page, the same starting capabilities for users) to unidirectional (making web pages became expensive and people are receiving more like in watching TV, content is in many cases similar crap as in TV).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @12:22AM
Corporate style?
What the hell does that even mean?
I think you should elaborate....
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @10:51PM (22 children)
This is why free software needs a Linux or a Stallman, someone who knows how to tell the proprietaries where to stick it. But if you let in the Bruces or Erics, or Marks, you end up with Open Sores. Just saying. Saw it coming!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday February 15 2019, @11:18PM (19 children)
We saw what all happened to Linus. He turned out to be a fizzle like Donald Trump*, it just took him a little while. He was overrun by the army of Jewish and minority pink-hairs who successfully exploited the fracture points and diluted not only the mission but the kernel itself by starting petty squabbles and other distractions about non-issues.
The only way future open source projects will succeed is run the project like a real dictatorship -- to force the rabble to pick a side, and if they choose to go against the dictator, then they leave the project or be shot. If I were Linus I'd fork it and have my most loyal followers join me in my new kernel project called Fag-free.
* Watching American politics is like watching a WWF match in which millions of jobs and lives are at stake, but for the sake of entertainment and my own ass, Trump better pull something magical out of his own
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:02AM
looool, almost worth tanking the country just to see you fucktards get yours
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:46AM (15 children)
I'm no fan of that bunch of power-mad community-manipulating bad actors passing themselves off as SJW's.
However, the fact that the E-F's comment above is so highly rated despite its cliche white supremacist rhetoric says really bad things about this community.
Kindness (or rather simply avoiding being unnecessarily unpleasant and abusive), empathy, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and constructively criticizing the code rather than attacking the coder are laudable and reasonable goals. It's what Capt. Picard would do.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:57AM (5 children)
You don't win with kindness. You win with force.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:02AM (3 children)
You don't win with kindness. You win with force.
We're talking about software bugs, not an enemy military. But maybe you have a point about force - you would need to apply it to me, as you certainly haven't persuaded me with your writing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:10AM (2 children)
As in, not at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:24AM (1 child)
Ah, I see. Editing text == force. Got it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @11:44AM
Holey Shite! A Jedi master right here on SoylentNews!
"May the Text-editing be with you."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Codesmith on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:09PM
The problem with that argument and by extension, your kind of person, is that there's always somebody with more force. I have the abiltiy to be the bigger asshole, but I find it much more productive to work with those around me to achieve better results.
In the real world, acting as you do will, at best, get you kicked out of a group. Seeing as you are continuing to mumble on about your own aggrievement to me that either you have not yet had the lesson of the 'biggest stick' applied to you, or you're just a troll in mom's basement hoping she'll bring down your plate of nachos.
Pro utilitate hominum.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:59AM (1 child)
We all know EF but it's a stretch to conflate the moderation with "white supremacy" when the comment is calling out that exact bullshit accusation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:05AM
Fair enugh The comment was a 4 when I posted. It's down to a 1 now. Perhaps I should have been more patient. In any event, thanks for considering my view.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @01:51AM (2 children)
You are suggesting that SJWs are good people out to save the world, which is exactly what a propagandist would say.
"These bad actors passing themselves off as communists do not care about the goal of the country"
etc
It looks like you are one of them SJWs, sent here by the khazar jewish rats to break, divide and destroy the community, to create confusion. A JIDF agent like a few others who get paid to write comment like the above. I've seen your kind and a sharp eye can tell you from any other user. Which is why you no longer write comments by logging in because you get exposed very quickly here.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:22AM
You are suggesting that SJWs are good people out to save the world, which is exactly what a propagandist would say.
Nice comeback, Adolf.
We're all in this together. 'All men are created equal' - noted propagandist T. Jefferson.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:48AM
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:01AM (3 children)
You're free to GTFO. Would be better for your virtue signalling cred too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:28AM (2 children)
i>You're free to GTFO. Would be better for your virtue signalling cred too.
I'm also free to stay and comment as long as I am no less civil than those I reply to. As is everyone here.
Or is ethnic hate a TOS requirement for an account here? If so, just confirm by replying to this and I'll fuck right off, no harm no foul.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:45AM (1 child)
You're also free to stay. I guess you like hanging with us racists then...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:57AM
You're also free to stay. I guess you like hanging with us racists then...
I like the site. I just disagree with some of you. I might come over to your dark side if you had tastier cookies. The SJW dark side cookies are vegan and icky. :-)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:08AM (1 child)
IIRC, Linus sabotaged himself by raising a NPC daughter. It was only after she became involved that his tune began changing.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:54AM
Yeah, he finally realized how it felt to be on the other side of his assholery. Having high standards and enforcing them is great. Needless abuse isn't.
Bro-coder: Your code sucks, you suck. gonna cry now, titty-baby?
SJW: White male? Patch denied. Back of the bus, privileged pig.
Everybody else: Hmm, I have a problem with your code, and I feel you can do better. Let's discuss.
After seventh lousy patch submission:
Bro-coder: You suck. Are you an SJW?
SJW: Entitled brogrammer scum.
Everybody else: I'm passionate about shipping quality code. Your code continues to be woefully sub-standard. Pleasr get some training and try again after I leave this project.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 15 2019, @11:27PM
The Prosecution Rests.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @11:48AM
How is ESR these days? Is his Patreon account blocked for racism, of gun-loving, or young girl chasing? If not, probably should be.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday February 15 2019, @11:26PM
At least Apple provided GCC/GDB patches to upstream.
Those patches were provided at the cost of thousands of engineer-years.
But I doubt they donated much actual cash because Apple and Richard have A Special Hatred for each other.
I may be a starving artist, but even _I_ purchased a Free Software Foundation T-Shirt [fsf.org] - that shirt is of _exceedingly_ high quality cloth, and so my very favorite.
My "Free Software, Free Society, www.fsf.org" leads all manner of strangers to puzzle over it than - cautiously - ask, "Do you really believe software should be free?"
I explain the difference between Libre and Gratis, then write "http://www.libreoffice.org" on the back of a napkin. Sometime soon I'll have that link and a few others printed on business cards.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by jasassin on Friday February 15 2019, @11:51PM
No.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 15 2019, @11:56PM
Good thing I only paid for a small coffee as just during the interval between nine last night and three this afternoon, my favorite WiFi spot just got firewalled.
There is a certain well-known chain of... WiFi Spots... that's quite generous with its philanthropic effort to wipe out quite a common plant fungus that threatens that livelihoods of millions of tropical farmers.
And to the extent I don't show up at the very same... WiFi Spot... every single day for three solid weeks, I can get as much as 4 PM/sec from mid-afternoon until - just for a few of its more-urban outlets - as late as Midnight on Weekends.
:-0
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:05AM (5 children)
Why is this sustainability question being asked again, now?
In any case, if this problem is getting too big to shrug off, it merely underlines the need to boost alternate business models. Put down the intellectual property hammer, and improve crowdfunding, government procurement, maybe advertisement, endorsements, and micropayments. Most of all, public users such as governments ought to use public software. There's a lot of standard setting that could be done, still a lot of proprietary file formats and such like that give monopolistic businesses too much leverage.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday February 16 2019, @12:11AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:50PM
What that is varies.
Almost every bit of open source software I've written (and free-but-closed source software, for that matter) with the exception of some projects for the disabled has been something I've written so I could use it myself. For the most part, I don't care who uses my work; who uses it has nothing at all to do with why I created it. Everyone, no one, it's all the same to me. I've written code with the idea in mind that others could use it — code that could be used here by Soylent, for example [soylentnews.org] — but you can bet your last $currency that I've already been using it myself.
Others write looking for (and sometimes getting) a bit of publicity, or however you'd like to characterize it — recognition, perhaps. We see this particular type of hunt going on all over social media; it's very common. The proverbial "five minutes of fame."
Yet others write to the tune of creating something they consider to have inherent value to a community, a social system, a nation, etc. These people are trying to accomplish something that isn't "about them" except perhaps as members of that notional community.
Some people write in the hope that it'll pay some or all of their bills, perhaps even get them ahead to some degree.
Then there is charity — straight-up writing to benefit others who need some help.
I'm sure there are crossovers as well. People who wrote something for one reason, but other factors came into play, and their goals altered or expanded.
What I'm getting at here is that there really isn't any single motivator involved WRT writing code, and as there really isn't any significant goal-related barrier to entry, I don't see any chance at all that open source and/or free+closed source efforts will see any particular erosion in volume or quality.
Unless legislators, lawyers and courts do it. Now that I could see becoming a broadly destructive force. The fact that it isn't now certainly isn't for a lack of trying — on either side.
--
The five stages of Winter:
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and April.
(Score: 3, Informative) by gringer on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:05AM
Why? It's Vice. They like stirring the pot to create controversy, regardless of who the tread over to do that.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:43PM (1 child)
The 'sustainable' idea is coming from the people with money. They are throwing that word around like it means something to them. So it is 'leaking' to other portions of the money stack and their sycophants in 'the media'. I know I sit through 'sustainability' trainings at large money company.
There is a nugget of an idea here that people seem to be missing.
Once the 'itch scratchers' have scratched the itch they move on. So it takes money to keep people involved. Where does that money come from? We can speculate and make up 'the way' but it usually takes someone seeing some sort of value in it and willing to pay for it.
We have built a monster with open source. Much of it is basically abandoned or in 'maintenance mode'. It is no surprise with the uprise of new fuzzing teq's that we are seeing an avalanche of bugs. That no one really wants to fix. The openssl and libressl was a very good example of one major project just like that.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Sunday February 17 2019, @02:59AM
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:18AM
Regular bitrot is one thing. Enemy action is quite another.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fliptop on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:30AM
In the case of mod_perl [apache.org], indeed.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @02:26PM
This is missing the dialectics used in modern world entirely. The same commodity, let's call it with modern newspeak, "intellectual property" has totally different value depending on who asks. If you use a logo on a fan site, you suddenly robbed a company for millions as they said it is worth such value. When this company robs your computer full of your "intellectual property" worth much more, it's suddenly worth nothing.
So we can see, that the base idea is seriously flawed when it comes to digital things, reproducibility and collaborative creating.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @05:30PM
is it sustainable? probably "yes" but only if future torchbearers are educated with tax payers monies and not corporate monies.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:19PM (1 child)
If you're getting burnt out doing something you are doing on a volunteer basis, there's an easy way out - stop volunteering! If the thing you're doing is worth doing, someone else will step up to do it. If it's not, then nobody needs to do it. I don't care who you are, or what your role is, in any organization larger than about 5 people, you can be replaced. And if your organization is smaller than about 5 people, then your organization can be replaced too.
If you're getting paid to do whatever it is you're doing, and you're getting burnt out, then you have a crappy job. See if you can find another less crappy job. If you do, you'll be replaced by someone who needs the money more than you do.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 17 2019, @05:19PM
What could I have done then, to find another crappy job?
What I was able to do for a good chunk of it was to earn ad clicks on a popular article I wrote about legal music downloads. But I haven't been able to come anywhere near to repeating that success.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 16 2019, @10:51PM
Hardware isn't free, internet access and the infrastructure thereof isn't free, CS training isn't free...but where is the money actually coming from and going? I'd be immediately suspicious of corporate beancounters and other various rent-seekers, and the more innocuous-sounding the name, the more suspicious. Like the Linux Foundation for example.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...