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I agree with you to a point, but I don't see how you're remotely
obliged to support whatever you release.<br>
<br>
The last time I had that kind of itch to scratch was when I needed
Thunderbird to automatically print anything that hits the inbox.
There was an open-source plug-in out there that was exactly none of
the things that you describe as being well-practised software
engineering - in fact it didn't even work with the current version
of Thunderbird - but I was glad someone had taken the time to throw
it on the web because it at least pointed me in the right direction
and saved me a load of time.<br>
<br>
If it's emails you're worried about, I'd just set up a throw-away
G-Mail account and have everything to do with the project go through
that, which you're free to browse through when you've got the
inclination. If you go get people whinging at you to fix something
for whatever reason, reply back to them detailing your standard
hourly rates and quote to fix their problem. If they get all
indignant at that, feel free to post their emails here so we can all
hate them through the Internet with you.<br>
<br>
I find myself in the same situation with the stuff I write - I don't
distribute it only because I've not gotten around to it yet. Most of
my stuff isn't organised or documented worth a shit but it does what
it says on the tin, and if that's worth anything then I'd be happy
to take suggestions from people who are looking to tidy the project
up for their owns ends, or show me ways of doing stuff better (like
organising the svn repo!).<br>
<br>
Ste<br>
<br>
On 08/04/11 10:53, Simon Johnson wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:BANLkTintP_r8-Hzo2VDVKhzCMQhAi48Qeg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I write a lot of software and it's all very much
closed source. In fact, it's closed distribution because I don't
even distribute it. I write software, I use it privately, and
never give it to anyone.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The reason is not so much a dislike of free software (quite
the opposite, I use free software daily) but rather the problem
that being a free software developer/distributor is a <i>lot </i>of
work.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I once wrote an application that auto-updates a block list of
ActiveX controls on a local computer. It did this by downloading
a publicly available block list and adding to the registry on
the computer in question. At its peak, I had around 20,000
downloads. A moderate success, you'll agree.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The problem comes from the users. </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>They'll write to you and complain it doesn't work, </li>
<li>They'll write to you asking for feature x, feature y,</li>
<li>Then you'll get people who say they installed it on their
network and a core app no longer works and they're being
blamed and it's somehow your fault.</li>
</ul>
<div>Meanwhile, you're bored of your application that you wrote
to scratch your own itch and want to move on to something
else. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Worse, writing free software is <i>harder</i> than closed
source stuff. You have to write higher quality code. You have
to organise it sensibly, you have to come up with coding
guidelines for submitting patches, you have document it so
that people can alter it. All this is good software
engineering practice, but it takes a lot more effort than some
app you design for yourself.</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Therefore, I have concluded that to release the same
application as a free software application, I will have to spend
twice the effort to release it as I would if I just kept it to
myself. If I do release it, I have an obligation to maintain it,
patch it and fix security issues. This adds a post delivery on
going cost which could run for the rest of my life.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div> In free software the primary currency is <i>time</i>. If I'm
lucky, I'll spend approximately three billion seconds on earth.
That time is precious. In the time I can dedicate to programming
outside work, I'd like to spend almost all of that time on
interesting programming problems - not on the overhead of
delivering free software.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>When I do the return on investment calculation, it turns out
that the closed source is the best idea.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I do wonder how many businesses make the same calculation,
not out of a philosophical objection to free software, but on
the basis that it simply costs more to be involved in the free
software community?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Simon</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 8 April 2011 05:20, Andrew Bates <span
dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:oscillik@gmail.com">oscillik@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt
0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);
padding-left: 1ex;">The other night we were discussing Nokia
and their seemingly contradictory statements that Symbian is
now "no longer open source", to the disbelief of many
luggers!
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>well, here is the link to their official statement <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://symbian.nokia.com/blog/2011/04/04/not-open-source-just-open-for-business/"
target="_blank">http://symbian.nokia.com/blog/2011/04/04/not-open-source-just-open-for-business/</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>yeah, as I'm sure we can all agree - Nokia seem to have
a somewhat strange way of dealing with things!</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
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