On 10/25/22 13:30, Tim via users wrote:
On Tue, 2022-10-25 at 10:55 -0700, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
Wine is the bad side of the open source model.
Give the software away for free, then hold the
user for ransom if they want the bugs fixed.
Libre Office does the same thing. Fedroa
does not and spoils all of us.
In the past, if I'd posted any bug reports (on any software), it was
virtually expected that I also supply the fix. Umm, no. That's what
things like GIT are for, user-participation in program changes.
Bugzilla is for user-participation in debugging.
I have no qualms about doing follow-up tests and trying alternative
recompiled files. But that was way too far.
There was a certain attitude of: How dare you criticize us for adding
yet another bug report to (the hundred prior reports) on something we
haven't bothered to do anything about in 8 years. You're such a user
for not contributing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to create
this program? We don't consider that bug important enough (despite the
years of lots of bug reports). You're not paying for my time.
Hence why I started off saying "in the past." Naturally I stopped.
Yes, you do need bug reports from users who aren't programmers.
They've found bugs that you didn't. You can't expect everyone to learn
how your program works internally, and understand your programming
quirks.
My programming days are ancient, pen and paper, writing mnemonics,
looking up the op-codes, writing them down (*I* was the compiler), hand
typing them into a programmer. And some basic (e.g. wrote a relational
database in a language that really doesn't have what you need for that)
and ARexx (wrote what was virtually a CRON daemon on a system that
doesn't have one). That was back in the days of if you wanted to do
anything, you wrote your own programs. But romping into a complex and
ever evolving OS, and getting to grips with someone else's program, is
diving into the deep end.
And, yes, I understand that programmers time isn't valueless. But that
isn't why you participate in open-source software. You got a free ride
on this free OS, with a free compiler, and a free hundred other things
that you're using. And then you do something that adds to that free
system, in some way.
Ordinary users contribute in other ways. As mentioned, they find bugs.
But they also stop using Windows or Mac, and don't forget that the way
one OS grows is by a reduction of the others. They advocate Linux to
other users who've never heard of it, or have completely the wrong idea
about what it is. They help people use the software, answer questions,
write guides.
Going back much further in the past, I participated in support lists
for various Amiga software. In those lists, you had users who were
programmers, who could directly help with fixes. You had users who
understood the specs (HTML, email, whatever), that the programmer
hadn't understood, who helped the programmers create the programs
properly. And you had ordinary users who found other problems and they
also help with fine-tuning the program. Some of that was freeware,
shareware, and outright commercial.
Good advice.
I was staching one really stupid bug in Libre Offce for
over eight years. I asked if anyone was working on it.
The response I got back was "Feel free to submit a patch".
I wrote back "Feel free to assign a developer to the bug".
That actaully got them to fix it.
I have slowed way down on bug reports to those projects
that do not fix things. Wine Staging use to fix tons
of stuff, but got gobbled up by Wine and that ended that.
In the case of Wine, I really do need to have it working.
UNLESS I can find a subsitute. You have any suggestions?
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