Re: Paying developers to get features faster

From: Jan Panteltje (pNaonStpealmtje_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 01/25/04 

Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 14:36:48 GMT

On a sunny day (Sun, 25 Jan 2004 05:03:21 -0600) it happened Ben Theil
<noname@nowhere.net> wrote in
<Xns947B3F2DCC80Bnonamenowherenet@216.196.97.132>:
I am not sure if I got your idea, but as a business plan your text sucks.
>From an open source point of view no from a technical point of view it
also sucks.
Recently I was asked again for some feature (say program re-write) by
someone -who does never contribute code-, and I told the person in
the most political way to write it himself.
So, there are 4 sure cases where I might have done it if I was payed for it.
It is true that once you have written something you may want to move on to
the next thing, 'for a challenge'.
I write things that I need at some point and that are not available in MS
windows and Linux, sometimes they are available in each but I want it
different etc...
Many people, now that Linux becomes main stream think we programmers work
for them (for free of cause), and send tons of emails with 'feature requests'.
If asked nice in a humble way I add the feature (if it makes sense), but I am
Oh so happy of someone actually finds a bug and or contributes code.
There is also the category of developers who work for some company that has
for example a hardware product, with Linux soft for it, in that case there is
funding.

Features well, companies will try to commercialize Linux of cause, make soft
that you have to pay for, ask them.
Not sure that is really going to work.
Pretty much anything available is as open source, and has more then one
solution from different people.
Still, for a million Euro, I will add the GUI or whatever :-)

>-The Linux programmer only knows how to implement the function but does
>not know the C programming language well. Their knowledge in pointer
>usage, global variable usage, union, types and function parameters is not
>good.
Yea and have you been in commercial companies and looked at THEIR soft?
It is much worse sometimes.

Also I think -at least for some of the programs *I* wrote-, you need several
days of really getting into details before you can even write a single fix,
you needed to be expert on the particular subject too (else you would not
know what was going on). This is true for me fixing something in what I left a
year or more ago.
Someone else doing such a 'rewrite' would make me ask them to bring it out as
their own split off (happened several times already), as then I could not
possibly further develop it.

See, you can have all your knowledge about pointers etc.. now add a feature
to a DVD authoring program.
Such a thing -for example- requires you to know that subject.
Precisely these programs (networking, video, audio, many more subject,
all special tools) are written by experts in that field.
Your chances of breaking it are much greater then fixing it.
JP

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Paying developers to get features faster
    ... I am not sure if I got your idea, but as a business plan your text sucks. ... now that Linux becomes main stream think we programmers work ... for them, and send tons of emails with 'feature requests'. ... Pretty much anything available is as open source, ...
    (comp.os.linux.development.apps)
  • Re: They didnt choose Vista
    ... Not looking feature for feature of the OS. ... Basically I need some of the Open Source IDE's to progress a bit more and have Adobe provide all of their products on Linux, ... BSS Enterprise Accounting FrameWork ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Linux - Bullet biting time
    ... It's not a problem; it's a feature. ... Ah, the real agenda surfaces. ... they're not going to distribute on Linux unless ... I would be surprised if many people were persuaded to go open source by ...
    (rec.games.roguelike.development)
  • Re: new laptop
    ... Oh this feature is in the driver. ... Linux can't use Windows drivers yet, ... My touchpad has a push-button which toggles the touchpad on or off, ...
    (uk.comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: Hiding symbols in shared library
    ... operating system gives the feature you want? ... For instance on linux we have linker scripts: ... You can specify more than one symbol on the ... more like the Linux feature you cite, ...
    (comp.sys.hp.hpux)
Loading