

Do open source software developers listen to their users? - edtechdev
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3640/3171

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millzlane
Absolutely...not, well some do. I stopped using/contributing to Gaim/Pigdin a
long time ago because of this. Ask for a simple feature and explain why it's
helpful for you as to show meritorious reason for requesting said feature,
only to be insulted, disrespected, or at the very least turned down without
consideration.

I stopped reporting bugs to ubuntu as well. Because real bugs were turned into
questions or closed, or ignored.

So I took up programming and will never use it again. there are plenty others
out there. I always thought open source software was a great idea. It's
starting to seem like capitalism in disguise.

~~~
bunderbunder
On the contrary, it's the _lack_ of capitalism that you've run up against.

The maintainers of projects don't care overmuch about your opinion _because
they don't have any reason to_. If you want someone who's eager to please, you
should be looking for someone whose ability to keep the bills paid depends on
whether you're happy enough to keep giving them money.

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tstegart
Judging from what people are saying here, I guess we're lucky. The open source
code we're using to publish our iPad magazine is run by AWESOME people who
have a lot of passion for their work. They're clear about what the road-map is
and let people know that when features are proposed that aren't in it. I can't
say enough good things about them, check them out -
<https://github.com/simbul/baker>

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casca
TL;DR - no. And that's before considering the validity of their data
collection method.

The general OSS project tend to start when someone has an itch to scratch.
They build something which solves that problem and upload the source
somewhere. The next step is determined by 2 questions:

1) Does the developer keep having the same itch? 2) Does the developer get
support from a company or someone else who has the same itch?

If not, the code becomes part of the Sourceforge wasteland of unmaintained,
unused code.

Github is an interesting attempt to keep the itch-scratching alive by making
forking easy, but when there are 10 different forks for similar functionality,
all by people of unknown coding ability, rewriting or reforking becomes the
safest option.

~~~
bunderbunder
Expanding on that -

Independent FOSS developers are also doing it _for fun_. I don't think that
detail gets enough credit. It means that by default most FOSS developers
aren't going to be nearly as interested in making significant contributions to
an existing project as they are in starting their own project. For most of us
maintaining existing code, fixing other people's bugs, and dealing with
project politics are sure-fire fun killers. So getting involved in an existing
project would defeat the purpose. On the other hand, the fact that my from-
scratch project may not ever be useful to anyone else is at best a remote
concern.

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jejones3141
It's a shame they didn't include window managers/windowing environments. I'd
be very interested in the responses they'd have gotten.

