[Sussex] Thoughts On Contrubuting to the Community

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

Steve Dobbo Dobson wrote:
> Hi all
>
> Last night there were two lurker views voiced that I think are typical:
> a) I'm not experienced enough, and b) I don't want to appear foolish.
> I can somewhat sympathize with the first, but the second (which came from
> someone with good technical expertise) I do not!
>
> I gave my standard answer last night: that there is always someone who 
> knows less than you, but this afternoon another, more powerful argument,
> has crossed my mind.
>   
It's like getting a date: the first step is to go out and try. Even 
failures can be wildly entertaining, though public shame also lies 
behind every door.

> Most of the software you use (on Linux) is covered by the GPL which can
> best be summarized as a "share and share alike" license.  As a user of 
> GPLed software you have something to share, your experiences.  So isn't
> your payment to the community, for using GPLed software, to contribute
> your experience back to that community?  I think it is.
>   
It's a big part, yes. Paying the people who also work with it when they 
do lots of work for you using it is another part. It's how I eat right 
now...

> After all your experiences do have value, either as something to avoid
> or as something to try.  To someone sitting there and thinking "what
> the hell do I try next" your post/blog entry/whatever might be just the
> thing to help him or her out.
>
> So to all you to spend a moment thinking about two of the questions Nik
> asked last night:
>    1) Why did you switch to Linux?  and
>    2) What is it that you like about Linux now you understand it
>       and the ideals it embodies?
>   
Oh, I didn't "switch to" Linux. I use it along with whatever tools I 
need for work and fun. I use it and contribute to it in advocacy and 
returning patches and bug reports in whatever tools I work with. (I'm 
also an antique at this field: I've been working with open source tools 
since before the FSF and GPL existed.)

Linux is a flavor of the open source world. The kernel has a good 
balance between getting things working fully, getting them working 
*right*, and encouraging others to play as well. Other components of 
different distributions do these better, or worse. We see tools like 
Xorg fork off and take over when the XFree86 group got too slow and 
refused community input, and similar things happen with dovecot taking 
over instead of wup-imapd, and firefox instead of netscape.

There are still flaws: Subversion still stores passwords locally in 
clear-text in the UNIX/Linux clients. (OK, how stupid is that?) But 
people actively pursue such flaws and get decent workarounds, and often 
a clear technical winner emerges with pressure accepted from us, before 
things break irretrievably.

> So, if you're one of those lurkers that always thinks that "there is
> someone better qualified to answer that query" stop thinking that NOW!
> You have an implied duty, under the GPL, a license you've agreed with by
> using the software, to contribute.
>   
Remember what I just said about getting a date? Demands work 
occasionally, but chocolate works better. And a footrub works even 
better. I met my wife doing backrubs at a really good party! When she 
used her feet on the tight muscles in my back, my thought of "marry this 
one!" turned out to be prophetic.

> So here is your homework from me.  You MUST reply to this email saying
> how you contribute, how you pay your dues, for using Linux.  There are 
> no exceptions, no excuses, and a reasonable time limit.  You can take
> until the next moot to answer.  Because I'm sure we'll want to talk more
> about it then.  But answer you should.  That's my EULA on this posting
> and all my future posting too:  To make use of the knowledge that I
> impart you must be a contributer too.
>   
Excuse me? See what I just said about getting a date? Offer people 
something they want, don't demand something you think is their due. A 
cookie is good. The title of "Sussex Master of Geekitude" is good for a 
laugh.

My dues are paid in weekly work: I've done ports and patches and helped 
out newbies and pointed out flaws and workarounds for VNC, OpenSSH, 
zlib, HylaFAX, Subversion, NVidia drivers, Xen, Netsaint and Nagios and 
Fruity, etc.

> And if you need one more reason to reply how's this?  My rational for 
> requiring you to post is that the first post is often the hardest, but
> with each post it becomes easier.  So maybe by getting more people
> to post I'll this list more active and more interesting.  And you also 
> never know, maybe I'll learn something about how to better post to this
> list.
>   
Ahh, looking for that second date, eh? You shoulda gone for chocolate on 
the first data. Chocolate is always good, even for diabetics, who 
appreciate a bite of really good chocolate even more than those who can 
eat it more often.