
Ask HN: Do you contribute to open source? Why? Why not? - egze
Hi,<p>We think that a lot of developers want to contribute to open source, but don&#x27;t do it for various reasons. We want to gather more insights about it and try to improve it.<p>We made a small survey with questions about open source. Would mean a lot to us if you take part. It should take only a couple of minutes.<p>Link: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fdier.co&#x2F;mm23y7
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tmoravec
At my company, engineers dedicate 10% of their work time to open source
contributions outside of our core products. They are quite free to pick any
project they want, as long as it benefits our particular community.

Why do we do this?

* It's a great perk for engineers. They contribute under their "personal" profiles, improving their own karma.

* Growth of the community we come from lifts everyone, including the company as a whole.

* We are grateful for what we get for free, and want to contribute back.

* It's a nice argument when hiring.

* It's a great way to skill up in the underlying technology.

* It teaches about collaboration and the softer skills needed to get PRs merged.

* It gives people to touch technologies they wouldn't learn on the job itself.

~~~
mathieubordere
Time to reveal the mystery and tell us how this magical workplace is called!

~~~
tus88
<insert trendy silicon valley upstart here>

~~~
tmoravec
Swiss :-) . Cryptosphere Systems.

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guessmyname
> _Do you contribute to open source? Why? Why..._

Yes, I do.

I have been contributing to the open-source community for ±10 years.

Many of my personal projects pass years unnoticed, but once in a while I
receive an email from a stranger on the Internet saying “Thank you” for
building a tool they found useful one way or another. Some times students,
some times people without programming skills, some times IT professionals.

To answer your second question: _“Why?”_ I make contributions to the open-
source community as a way to pay back the solutions they have provided in the
past. Nowadays I spend much less time building my own tools and more time
searching online for open-source solutions, and fortunately I often find good
ones, then I say “thank you” by reporting issues, giving feedback,
implementing features, fixing bugs, etc.

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hvasilev
I'm not contributing to any free / open source projects.

I think that that FOSS is fueling the technology monopolies, despite
originally aiming at the exact opposite. I think it has driven many software
markets in the ground like for example tooling. I cannot believe that we use
absolutely horrible software like GDB in 2020.

I think there is a lot of left learning ideology behind hte FOSS development
and also these types of products have a limited way in which they can be
monetized.

P.S. I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate, but I think that as a developer you
can spend your time better elsewhere :)

~~~
OrderlyTiamat
Can you elaborate on how foss fuels tech monopolies? I've never understood
that argument and would like to hear more.

~~~
hvasilev
As a manager of a big tech company you are incentivized to increase profit and
minimize cost. Might be slightly more painful to use a FOSS toolchain in your
team, but your costs are zero. In comparison look at how much does a
commercial IDE license like CLion costs per user.

It is a zero resistance environment. It gives the opportunity of the small to
grow without any costs, but it also doesn't limit how big the big ones can
get.

~~~
OrderlyTiamat
So if I understand correctly, the argument is that it drives down costs as
opposed to proprietary alternatives. But how does this lead to monopolies?

Is it something like was suggested below by tsukurimashou, that companies
takeover foss software so that it is essentially theirs? But I don't see how
that is functional ly different from them just developing that software
themselves (apart from higher costs for them). In this model at least everyone
can see the source and has the freedom to use and modify as they see fit. I
feel like there is still a step here that I'm missing.

~~~
hvasilev
It is a zero resistance environment. It gives the opportunity of the small to
grow without any costs, but it also doesn't limit how big the big ones can
get.

~~~
OrderlyTiamat
I see. To me that is then not something that would specifically lead to
monopolies.

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blowski
Define "contribute".

If you mean "write code for", then honestly I make very few code
contributions. In the 00s, my employer was suspicious of developers
contributing to open source, to the point of banning it contractually. I've
since changed employer, but I have a legacy of that early experience.

On the other hand, I contribute to open source projects in many ways - I give
money to many projects I use, attend meetups, give presentations at
conferences, coach people, write answers on StackOverflow.

~~~
egze
For me all of that counts. Even a bug report is a contribution.

~~~
AstralStorm
Especially a well written and researched bug report. Many typical users lack
the skill to do that, and a software developer would have an ample amount of
it.

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gherkinnn
I don't. Have donated though.

I rarely program outside of work. And if I do, I just want toy with some
ideas, not to actually build something. Most of my learning is done on work
time.

It certainly feels nice to take regular breaks from screens, bugs, things not
working because the stars aren't aligned just the right way and solving
abstract problems. Enjoying the simple tings.

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progval
I do, as much as I can.

The main reason is that it's important for me to contribute to the common good
regardless of monetary reasons, if I can afford to do so. This is true both at
a moral/political level, and at a personal level (feeling useful).

It's also a way to give back to projects I use, as I can't donate money to all
of them as much as they are worth.

I also like to program just for fun (ie. not useful stuff), and today it's as
easy to make my useless stuff open source rather than keeping it private; so I
might as well make it open source, because sometimes other people actually
find it useful.

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r_singh
Do I contribute to open source?

Seldom (<10 PRs merged)

Why?

\- When I discover issues in an otherwise active library or starter, I fix
them and submit a PR

\- When I need a minor feature in a library and the codebase is readable

\- When I study online courses, I submit PRs with notes and solutions to help
others (and myself with motivation)

Why not?

\- Because it's a thankless job (not getting paid for contributions)

\- Because of lack of expertise

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saagarjha
Yes. I use a lot of open source software. Often it doesn’t do something I’d
like it to, or it misbehaves, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to spare
time to contribute. Plus it’s a great way to learn new things or get a better
understanding of how things you use work, and you often get to meet people
doing interesting work!

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255kb
I would like to contribute more. But the first reason I don't do it is the
amount of time it requires. Investigating the issue, opening a ticket, digging
in someone else's code, coding the fix, testing it, opening a PR, updating
following review's comments, etc, can take hours.

I created an open source developer tool
([https://mockoon.com](https://mockoon.com)). And I can see the amount of time
it takes for other people to contribute. On my side, reviewing or correcting
other people contribution is already a lot of work. I think open source is
fantastic but can really become a full time job. :) I really believe companies
using open source libraries and software should start contributing financially
or by dedicating employee's time to contribute. We are in 2019 and this must
be seen as an investment.

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petetnt
I contribute to open source at work and on my free time. At work I contribute
because I want to improve something I spent my time on figuring out (eg.
documentation, bug fixes, features) so I don't have to do it again later and
hopefully someone else can enjoy it too. On my free time I contribute for the
same reason I play music, skateboard or play video games: it's fun.

I have gained tons of things from contributing (experience and knowledge,
connections) even if I don't expect to get anything from it. I have also faced
the darker side of OSS: the angry users who haven't spent a dime, the "go kill
yourself" messages, the dislikes, the time spent wasting time on things that
wouldn't happen. At times like that I just remind myself: I am doing this for
fun and I can stop when it's not fun anymore.

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FlorianRappl
I do.

Reasons for me:

* I like building things

* I feel like we are relying on OSS a lot, this only works if we contribute back, too

* It's a great way to improve (workflow, coding, communication)

* So far it was mostly a nice experience - I've got the pleasure to get to know some awesome folks

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bluehatbrit
I contribute as much as I can, but I don't usually have much time that I can
use at work so 99% of it is done in my own time. Right now I'm maintaining a
small project for converting markdown into pdf's[0], and I've picked up
maintaining the StatsD project[1].

I do it for two reasons, first the enjoyment. I really like working on
problems of a smaller scope, without a full business around it. I love being
able to think of something and knock out some code for it and share it, rather
than the code coming last.

The second reason I try and contribute is because I generally believe it
contributes positively to the world. I'm sure those who've read my code might
disagree, but on the whole I think offering free tools to tackle common
problems helps everyone. Even if it's not "exactly" how you want it to work,
it's at least prior art to inspire new solutions.

[0]
[https://github.com/bluehatbrit/mdpdf](https://github.com/bluehatbrit/mdpdf)

[1] [https://github.com/statsd/statsd](https://github.com/statsd/statsd)

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rvz
Personally I don't, but I know people who do and whilst meeting and chatting
with them, they are very encouraging to newcomers who want to attract new
contributors. Without them, most of all the software used by everyone would be
non-existent.

Why?

Some of them tell me that this helps them improve their skills and allows
transparency in the project which helps their project in being trustworthy
than the alternatives. Promoting more FLOSS-based software.

Why not?

While for many years, it has been a voluntary endeavour for devs and they take
donations or sponsorship to fund their development. On Github, unless you are
lucky enough to be a celebrity programmer of a famous project, this is
difficult for many to build such a reputation and release a useful project for
free to get paid for it. Thus, GitHub has accelerated this entitlement and
only the famous programmers with a solid fanbase will reap its benefits.

I think it would be better to donate to an OSS org for more devs to get paid
rather than to a specific individual/developer, unless they are the sole owner
of the project.

------
Pinegulf
Does Wikipedia count? Not too much. Mostly due to amount of work required and
twice the amount to defend against the politicking about it.

------
moviuro
I use my own time to work on tooling I miss on my workstations/own servers
[0]. I also have a knack for finding weird bugs in otherwise widely popular
and stable software [1,2]. I spend some time on select subreddits (WireGuard
for instance) and on IRC to help out when I can.

I do it mostly because it's fun, and I learn some new stuff. Not much is
applicable on my day-to-day job though.

[0] [https://git.sr.ht/~moviuro](https://git.sr.ht/~moviuro)

[1]
[https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/580](https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/580)

[2] [https://marc.info/?l=postfix-
users&m=157324715117972&w=2](https://marc.info/?l=postfix-
users&m=157324715117972&w=2)

------
badrabbit
I try sometimes but not that interested tbh. It boils down to my experience
with PRs. they ignore it forever without a comment sometimes, other times it
takes a lot of back and forth discussion which takes up valuable time. I
wanted to contribute in other ways too but I alwayd run into roadblocks such
as how bigger projects want you to have or build reputation first and they
"frown upon" not using your real name and email. I am not saying any if that
is bad or unreasonable, just incompatible with my requirements. Ymmv, I
greatly appreciate all contributors. I wish more foss projects that are full
blown apps offered commercial support though, it makes it easier to find
people that can commit more time and resources.

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anonymou2
I donate to the fsf. At one point I realized how much free software my company
was using. Thanks to it I was getting paid. I thought it was only fair to give
back. Of course it should have been my company that should have done that, but
they were greedy morons at the time.

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nils-m-holm
I rarely (pretty much never) contribute, but I write a lot of software and put
it in the public domain. Why? What I write has no commercial value (I think),
but in case it is useful to someone, I do not want to put any legal stuff in
their way.

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alphadevx
I maintain my own open source project. I do this because I am a manager now,
therefore I no longer writing code during my day job. However I still love to
code, so an open source project is a perfect hobby for me.

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zabil
Yes I do. Because I genuinely want others to benefit from problems I've solved
so that they can focus on other things.

As a developer I struggled writing functional tests. So my company sponsors a
team to build and maintain two OSS projects
[https://gauge.org](https://gauge.org) and
[https://taiko.dev](https://taiko.dev) that makes testing reliable and simple.

We are trying our best to listen to users and help them out. It's been the
most rewarding part of my career.

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krageon
I contribute to open source packages when I am allowed to do it during work
time. I do not do it from home, and this is mainly because getting pull
requests approved (especially in the larger packages) is a huge pain in the
ass (weird contributor license agreements, people bikeshedding for absolutely
no reason, questions about my contribution that make no sense, etc).

There is already more than enough social posturing and chest-thumping involved
in getting through a work day and I'm not interested in having that be a part
of my private life.

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CM30
For the most part, no I don't. Not entirely sure why, I guess it's just a lack
of interest in the projects I've seen so far. Or perhaps the feeling there are
people with skills better suited to it, or enough of a community there that my
efforts wouldn't be necessary.

Still, I guess there is one project (a video game level editor/modding tool)
which I indirectly contribute to, in the sense of coding the website and
working to get the web APIs working. Just haven't found many others in that
situation.

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anotheryou
I'm not a dev and product management work might be valuable to OSS, but I'd
feel like I'd be imposing things on devs and in a way it's hard to get a foot
in the door (because everyone always knows better what should be done and
why).

I have the feeling it's similar for UX people.

This way I stick to good bug reports and some small suggestions.

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jmstfv
I run a small software company, and I occasionally contribute to open source,
mostly when a library is missing _something_ that I want.

To be sure that my work won't go unnoticed, I file the issue first and ask
maintainers if they'd be open for the pull request. If they respond within a
reasonable time frame, I start working on it.

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Darkstack
I do not, mostly because I work with proprietary software at work. On my free
time I submit bugs on GitHub for the projects I use (mostly small projects),
with the technical solution inside, but not with PR (as i feel like the owner
may have a broader view, and fix it in a better way).

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jamil7
The most successful open source contributions I've made have always been when
my employer required some bug fix or feature in a third party library and I
was able to spend time submitting upstream patches.

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oefrha
I do. It’s like torrenting, at least some people in the swarm have to seed to
a certain ratio to keep the swarm going. It’s my way of paying back the
benefits I’ve received from other people’s work on FOSS.

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onion2k
I don't because almost all the projects I'd like to contribute to feel like
they're far beyond my abilities as a developer. I hope that's just imposter
syndrome but it might not be.

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purplezooey
The main thing is that you have to deal with people who have a strong
personality but don't know what the fuck they are talking about. It's all that
stuff that wears you down.

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bechampion
I've contributed to a number of things during my time working with computers ,
unfortunately it has always been commits that fix things that stop me moving
forward. nothing major.

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RickJWagner
I do, as part of my work.

But even if it wasn't part of my job, I'd want to be part of it. It's the best
model for software development. (Lots of brains contributing.)

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quickthrower2
I do a minute amount of greenfield open source, but I can’t see myself doing
PRs etc. seems too much like the 9-5 work! I might do if my main job wasn’t as
a dev.

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11235813213455
I do, at any possible occasion, for fixing/reporting bugs,
proposing/discussing features, documenting, or simply curiosity and learning

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jhatemyjob
I used to but now I don't, for the same reasons I restrain posting on internet
forums like these

~~~
quickthrower2
What are these reasons?

~~~
jhatemyjob
Because I only have one life to live. Writing comments on internet forums and
contributing to open source is roughly equivalent to pissing into a sea of
piss.

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ablx000
No - not enough free time.

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aaronwp
if anything my terrible merges usually detract from it

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maruko
Yup, I did contribute to some small OSS projects

