Linked by Bob "number9" Minvielle on Fri 13th Jun 2003 18:51 UTC
Having written open source software myself, and being a subscriber to mailing lists, etc, there is a realization that the number one thing missing from smaller open source projects is feedback from users.
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Nice attitude there Salv.
I must say that I think you are the one making the mistake of confusing open source / free software with comercial proprietary offerings.
Here in the land of free software, two philosophical principals rule.
[1] There is no distinction between developers and users.
[2] Release early and release often.
The logic flows like this...
Because a developer of free software is not typically burdened by the overhead of a commercial enterprise
(hr dept, finance dept, endless process meetings, etc.) he *may* develop his project using the methods of the academy. Specifically , he opens his work to peer based criticism and review. This action gains the very real benefit of reducing the total labor for the developer. How so you ask? Ninety percent of the result of a given project is the consequence of merely ten percent of the total effort.
So then, cobble together a basically functioning program.
Release to community of user/developers for testing/review.
Receive responses from community (criticism and or code).
Integrate feature requests/bug fixes into project.
Release and repeat until:
- program stabilizes
- interest wanes
- project forks
If you do it all yourself, you_are_working_too_hard.
If you disregard the useful input of others, you lose the benefits of peer review and you program suffers.
If you really want to work alone, and don't want to be *bothered* by others after you are done writing your *perfect* code, then why release your project as free software in the first place?
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