
Open Source made me the man I am - rolandboon
http://cubiq.org/open-source-made-me-the-man-i-am
======
munchor
I contribute to some FOSS projects with hundreds of thousands of downloads and
it's healthy from several points of view.

On the one hand, I made some great "online" friends and feel great as I write
code that I know people will use and appreciate. On the other hand, I've
learnt so much and I know that some of the skills I've acquired during these
years will help me when I'm old enough to get a job and start "actually"
working. _I feel like I can also say Open Source will make the man I will be._

To me, it's amazing how I can sit back in my desk and shape projects being
developed and used by people from all over the world. I rarely have time to
think about the awesomeness in that, but when I do I always feel so fulfilled.

~~~
leviathan
Reminds me of the time I used to contribute to the enlightenment project. e17
was still not released, and very rough around the edges, I had commit access,
so I wrote a theme selector app and put it in the repo, it eventually got
picked up and included with the default installation of e17. Was the best
feeling at the time to have something you wrote used by people all around the
world.

Of course the project then moved on and my code was replaced.

------
simplify
Open source is one of those rare times when "build it and they will come"
holds true. I built a testing gem for stripe, and with zero marketing I've had
eight complete strangers come in and make useful contributions through the
magic of github. Open source is truly fascinating.

~~~
adamonduty
Link to your stripe testing gem?

~~~
simplify
[https://github.com/rebelidealist/stripe-ruby-
mock](https://github.com/rebelidealist/stripe-ruby-mock)

------
mark_l_watson
I liked that, and open source has similarly helped my career over the decades
(I write this wearing a FSF tee shirt :-)

One warning to the author: he might be more careful about posting his rate for
specific customers. I am also contracting at Google and my contract says that
remuneration is confidential.

~~~
cubiq
thanks for the heads-up. My standard hourly rate is public (you can find it in
the "hire me" section too), long term hires are then discussed on a per
project basis. I actually didn't disclose how much they spent :)

------
orenbarzilai
Good article. If you looking for an idea for your next article I would love to
know how you publish your open source code, how you introduce your projects to
the first developers? any interesting hack there? or simple post in HN is
enough?

~~~
cubiq
I'm the author of the original article. I actually haven't posted it on HN and
it was a pleasant surprise.

I believe the best way to "promote" yourself is by being active in your
community. Connect with other developers, discuss on forums, groups, g+,
etc...

Just logging in to push your open source project is pretty useless and quite
lame. You have to be believable and you need to gain the trust of your
community first. It's a long process but it pays back.

~~~
derekp7
What if you have an open source project for which you can't easily find a
community? For example, I've got what I feel is a fairly good backup utility
as an upgrade for people using rsync snapshot backups. But it would feel
improper to mention it on any rsync backup tool mailing list (as it
technically competes with these tools).

The only thing I can think of is to make packages for various distributions
and see if they want to include it. But I'd like to get a bit more testing and
feedback first, with maybe a couple dozen users before going mainstream.

------
sovande
Does a few weekend projects on GitHub and blogging about it really count as
"developing open source software"? Isn't this more like using the Open Source
term to promote oneself? Compared to guys like Igor Sysoev churning away year
after year working on nginx and _not_ using time to blog about it.

~~~
krapp
>Does a few weekend projects on GitHub and blogging about it really count as
"developing open source software"?

Yes.

~~~
TheLegace
Definitely. I spent a lot of time at looking at code for microcontroller
projects, Arduinos, AVR, STM32. For some people with experience they may take
a weekend or two, but for someone who learns by reading code it's the building
blocks of your career and success(or future success in my case ;).

------
b0ti
It's nice to hear about such success stories. Unfortunately most OSS projects
never gain such a user base to be able to make a living off of it. I'm
currently evaluating changing the license of our GPL-ed software to use
something more restrictive or even dropping OSS and make it freeware only
without providing sources. Read these emails if you want to know why:
[http://www.mail-archive.com/nxlog-ce-
users@lists.sourceforge...](http://www.mail-archive.com/nxlog-ce-
users@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00214.html) [http://www.mail-archive.com/nxlog-
ce-users@lists.sourceforge...](http://www.mail-archive.com/nxlog-ce-
users@lists.sourceforge.net/msg00215.html)

Let me know if you have some advice.

~~~
nl
My advice would be to setup a paid support arm ASAP, and tell the person
complaining they have two options:

1) Log a bug against the windows build process, and you'll look at it when it
reaches the top of your priority list, or

2) Engage you for paid support to investigate the issue.

You are under no obligation to make your softwear buildable on any platform.
If he chooses to disagree,he can refuse your license, delete your software and
move on.

~~~
b0ti
Paid support is already there. There is a "support" menu on the webpage, the
issue tracker has a polite note saying that this is available. Some people
have been contacted directly in email to see whether they'd be interested.

For example some users at a big Taiwanese laptop maker company were after
windows2000(!) support. When they were politely offered support saying "please
decide whether paid support would be of interest or not", the response was
"ok, thank you for your information but when can you fix the bug?". I could
give countless other similar examples.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions. I'll heed the advice and will change the
website to make this more clear for those who are only after the free labor.

------
madoublet
I can echo a lot of what the author is saying. While I have seen less
financial success, my project (respondcms.com, if interested) has taught me a
lot about writing code, designing UI, and dealing with complexity. I am
definitely a better developer for doing it, and at the end of the day, it is
definitely a good feeling when someone finds value in what you are doing.

------
qwerta
I am bootstraping startup which will turn my long time hobby OS project into
full-time job. I am almost always tired, cranky and my social life sucks. I
think it is safe to say, I would be better man with normal hobby and 9-5 job.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
That's the pressure of a start up rather than the specifics of the project
though isn't it?

Going it alone and giving up the security of a steady pay check is going to be
hard whether you're setting up a software company or a sandwich shop.

I suspect for every entrepreneur blogging about how being self employed has
given them a great work life balance, I suspect there are 20 in the same
position as you. It could be that you're not suited to the life but, more
likely I suspect, it's just part and parcel of the early stages of setting out
on your own.

~~~
qwerta
No pressure, I have long runway and dozens of job offers to fallback to. And I
just turned profitable.

This is not a rant, I love what I am doing and freedom it brings. I just want
to point out that being OS nerd, does not always line up with being "better
man".

------
jbrooksuk
I write open source code — some stuff I'm tidying up before I release, since I
just whack it on GitHub unusable for the 99% — but don't have much exposure? I
have plugins built for Sublime Text which have around 4k downloads.

[http://github.com/jbrooksuk](http://github.com/jbrooksuk)

~~~
derekp7
How do you track your number of downloads on Github?

~~~
jbrooksuk
Ah, I don't. All of my Sublime packages are in Package Control, so I can check
the downloads through wbonds site;
[https://sublime.wbond.net/browse/authors/jbrooksuk](https://sublime.wbond.net/browse/authors/jbrooksuk)

------
rhc2104
Cool. Stories like this are why I'm building a marketplace for freelance
programmers that have contributed to open source.

Of course, it's open source-
[https://github.com/CodeDoor/codedoor](https://github.com/CodeDoor/codedoor)

------
frank_boyd
Using and/or contributing to open-source software also means that you help
society use its resources in a more economic and intelligent way:

You can invest the resulting savings in projects which will in turn advance
society.

Also in _this_ sense you become "a better man".

------
danbmil99
Open Source has been berry, berry good to me! (Anyone else old enough to catch
the reference?)

It's really an amazing social phenomenon, something unexpected and unique,
that seems to go against the grain, or at least usefully counter, the market-
driven, proprietary, DRM, locked-in, control-freak sensibility that is so
prominent today in mainstream high tech.

------
jmgutn
Open source is definitely the most amazing philosophy on software development.

Recently a guy at Facebook recruiting staff contacted me by email for a
position inside the company saying that they liked what I've been building and
publishing as open source.

I'd highly recommend to everyone that contributes with open source to attach
their github/bitbucket/googlecode/etc accounts on their resumes.

I'm doing exactly that on my linkedin summary and it helped me a lot to
introduce myself. [http://www.linkedin.com/pub/juan-manuel-
garc%C3%ADa/29/4a5/2...](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/juan-manuel-
garc%C3%ADa/29/4a5/214)

------
nrmn
I feel a little apprehensive about sharing my code online, Im not sure if its
an ego thing or from seeing some of the rude comments people have made over
twitter about X pull request being made on github. Am I just being silly about
this?

~~~
kylemaxwell
Not "silly" per se, but I think that concern is overblown. I write bad code
and release all of it that I can, because we don't get better in a vacuum.
Also, what's terrible code to you is likely highly useful to somebody else.

------
lowmagnet
I only have one project[1], but the communications from its users (always
constructive or requests for information) makes me proud of the way it makes
the average Java Selenium user's life easier.

[1]
[https://github.com/elisarver/selophane](https://github.com/elisarver/selophane)

------
jjoe
Perhaps it made him a "better" programmer but claiming to have made him a
better "man" is a bit exaggerated.

I guess he's super excited about how far he's come and how programming helped
him attain a certain level of satisfaction and happiness in his professional
life.

~~~
jaggederest
Personally I can't see a path forward for me from high school till now without
open source.

I own a home, stock, work a great job, have gotten to travel the world, and do
exactly what I want to do for a job. Purely as a result of having the tools
and instructional material I needed available libre on the internet.

I can't help but think that without that kind of alternative, dropping out of
college would have sunk me for life - I'd probably still be working odd jobs
in my hometown and living with my parents, no career, no future, depressed. I
could even imagine an alternate present where I had enlisted in the military
and gotten deployed.

------
jnazario
"two weeks ago i couldn't spell open source, now i am one!" (kidding)

but seriously, open source certainly helped make me the person i am, as well.
by working on open source projects, i got my first gig (in a field i'm not
professionally trained in, either), and i have been fortunate to have been
surrounded by generous, bright people who i have always tried to learn from.

my own story is why i recommend to people to get involved in open source
projects in their learning.

------
CodeGlitch
Great article. I have only just started my own opensource projects (this year)
and find it so much more satisfying.

~~~
borplk
if you don't mind what is your project? just curious

~~~
CodeGlitch
One of them is a security-camera system for Raspberry Pis, the other is me
just messing around writing an artificial-lifeform type thing in Python.

Nether are ready for any kind of public exposure just yet ;) hackernews will
be the 1st to know about it when I do though!

Cheers

~~~
kylemaxwell
If you have code and it kind of runs, it's ready for public exposure. You
never know when somebody will make a suggestion, give you a pointer to improve
your code, or even send in a patch.

------
known
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
\--Isaac Newton

------
sidcool
I m an open source contributor. But my contri has been small. Any tips how I
can improve it?

~~~
iamwil
Start with documentation. And learn how to read other people's code.

