[GNUz] Moving ...

[Jim Cheetham]

On Oct 15, 2005, at 3:10 PM, Steve Holdoway wrote:
> On Sat, October 15, 2005 10:54 am, Jim Cheetham wrote:
>> Despite being GPLd, the community had not submitted any significant
>> patches or functionality,

> ...exactly what we're finding as well. We get loads of suggestions 
> about
> how to make stuff better or will you support this as well, but as for a
> single code fix/enhancement? Nope.

Eric Raymond's "the community" that mystically improves all "Open 
Source" software doesn't really exist - it's been present for a 
vanishingly small percentage of projects, and some of them have been 
high-profile, but in general users are only capable of submitting bug 
reports (which are still valuable).

I wouldn't dream of submitting a patch for apache for example ... on 
other projects where I've been more interested in the internals, I've 
submitted descriptive patches to highlight a fix for a problem, but I 
still wouldn't assert them to be the *correct* fix ...

I think ESR watched that Field of Dreams film ... "If you build it, 
they will come ..." and decided that "If you Open Source it, they will 
contribute". It's not one of the benefits that RMS touts ...

-jim