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Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#281

Post by pram »

sshine wrote: post #17
al_borland wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always just stick my Obsidian vault in iCloud and called it a day. No additional sync service required.

This worked for me until iCloud started cache clearing all my files aggressively so my vault would take ten minutes to open on iPhone. Every few days. When I tried to copy my vault off iCloud, the copy failed and two years of notes were permanently lost. I’m never putting anything of value in iCloud again.

FWIW it has an option these days to keep folders permanently downloaded/local.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#282

Post by Aachen »

grepfru_it wrote: post #153
erulabs wrote: post #99

When I was ~14 I open sourced a script to autoconfigure X11's xrandr. It was pretty lousy, had several bugs. I mentioned it on a KDE mailing list and a KDE core contributor told me it was embarrassing code and to kill myself. I took it pretty hard and didn't contribute to KDE or X11 ever again, probably took me about a year to build up the desire to code again. Everything else I've open-sourced has gone pretty well,…

Oh wow old war wounds from teenage days opened up. My friend kept locking himself out of root and would be forced to single user the system to recover. This was difficult for many reasons, including remote hands costing up to and including $50 per call. I decided to look into why su would only work with root. Found a very simple check that I thought was unreasonable. Made my first patch and proudly posted to the Free…

Do I understand correctly that su is to switch user, and that your patch makes it work with the target user's credentials rather than necessarily root?

I was confused while reading because I nearly only ever use su to switch to the superuser account and obviously to get root permissions you should be root or else it's a security issue. Looking up what su does on FreeBSD, I was reminded that it can switch to any user. I've actually used that before. You made that? :o

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#283

Post by jraph »

notanaverageman wrote: post #277

Not that I regret it, but I found out that creating a community around an open source project is not like what you expect. I've been working on a tool for a very popular project for more than two years, adding features, refining it etc. since I had my time. Reading many comments on HN and Reddit on how people don't like current dominant tool or its alternatives, what features they expect etc. I thought I've got one t…

> I'm still deciding whether to continue or just go back to lurking and keep my tool to myself.

I'd be inclined to suggest not to let the 1% annoying people spoil it for everyone else if you can help it.

Most people know to see through and recognize these annoying people and their toxic comments and know to appreciate the good work.

Sharing your work as open source is still an amazing thing to do despite the annoying vocal minority and many people appreciate it even if they don't say much.

Of course, your own sanity and health is the most important thing.

Thanks for having shared your work as open source until now and good luck for the future, whatever path you end up choosing.

Also: write your open source stuff for yourself. Share it but don't wait for validation. That's bonus but your motivation should come from inside. IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#284

Post by Aachen »

brikym wrote: post #166

Yes - I open sourced a web game which was promptly ripped off and plastered with banner ads. The copycat impersonated me on social media claiming to be the developer. I promptly made the repo private and made many improvements after that point in time so the damage wasn't too bad. But the copycat got a better Google ranking which focused people. There are also a lot of link-farm sites where web games are proxied and…

This is a concern for many developers, but I haven't heard of it actually happening when the software isn't crazy famous. Sorry to hear this. Wonder if it's rotten luck or actually a common problem :/

A middle way might be to do like some people and use a license that allows only viewing the code for some months/years and then allows all the normal software freedoms after that time. In the meantime, you get to work on it and keep yourself ahead of any copies that would need to work off of old versions, but if you get hit by a bus or for other reasons abandon it, it's automatically open sourced. I kinda like that mechanism because there's so much abandonware where it would have been really cool to have this. Though, if it's a serious concern that someone copies it like this, it might be a lot of pressure unless the source-available time is very long

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#285

Post by kellpossible2 »

533474 wrote: post #259
pentamassiv wrote: post #105

I am the maintainer of a library to simulate keyboard and mouse input. I didn't start the project but took over the maintenance and have since rewritten pretty much all of the code. I recently found out that Anthropic is shipping it in Claude Desktop for some unreleased feature which is probably like "Computer Use". I noticed they had an open position in exactly the team responsible for the implementation and applied…

You should have licensed it under AGPL; Anthropic then would have reached you to negotiate a commercial license or contribute back to the project, since AGPL forces server-side code disclosures when deployed. Without that, they can legally use, modify, and profit from it without sharing improvements or compensating you

what's to stop them from Recreate this library so that I can use it in my project without fear of copyright violation. in their very own claude code?

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#286

Post by jraph »

erulabs wrote: post #99

When I was ~14 I open sourced a script to autoconfigure X11's xrandr. It was pretty lousy, had several bugs. I mentioned it on a KDE mailing list and a KDE core contributor told me it was embarrassing code and to kill myself. I took it pretty hard and didn't contribute to KDE or X11 ever again, probably took me about a year to build up the desire to code again. Everything else I've open-sourced has gone pretty well,…

I hope this person managed to change, or that KDE has managed to get rid of them. I expect KDE to be better than this.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#287

Post by latexr »

latchkey wrote: post #163
pentamassiv wrote: post #105

I am the maintainer of a library to simulate keyboard and mouse input. I didn't start the project but took over the maintenance and have since rewritten pretty much all of the code. I recently found out that Anthropic is shipping it in Claude Desktop for some unreleased feature which is probably like "Computer Use". I noticed they had an open position in exactly the team responsible for the implementation and applied…

You're expecting them to hire you because you wrote some code they happen to depend on?

I’m unsure if you’re being serious or making a joke. If you depend on something, it is in your best interest to have it continue and remain in good shape. What better way to ensure that then to pay the salary of the creator and world’s utmost expert on the thing? As a bonus, it ensures your specific needs about the thing are addressed in a timely manner.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#288

Post by jraph »

_lvbh wrote: post #5

I regret open sourcing my reverse engineering of Obsidian Sync. I did it mostly for personal use but thought it might be useful for others. After a bit of cat and mouse, they fixed all the "vulnerabilities" that let you change the sync and publish endpoints and now I'm still stuck using a very outdated version. I recently found another way to get it working on IOS again but definitely not publishing it.

This sucks.

As a free software enthusiast, this screams "don't invest time in closed ecosystems".

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#289

Post by latexr »

notanaverageman wrote: post #277

Not that I regret it, but I found out that creating a community around an open source project is not like what you expect. I've been working on a tool for a very popular project for more than two years, adding features, refining it etc. since I had my time. Reading many comments on HN and Reddit on how people don't like current dominant tool or its alternatives, what features they expect etc. I thought I've got one t…

> creating a community around an open source project is not like what you expect.

> (…)

> Then someone wrote that you should not make your friends/alt-accounts comment on your posts, it's cringe and that happiness went away.

Respectfully, if you’re that easily discouraged you should not in any way attempt to “create a community”. Having a popular open-source project isn’t glamorous, it’s extra work for you. It’s entitled users making demands and opening crappy bug reports, punctuated by the occasional decent contributor and even rarer exceptional one.

Make your tool available and let it be. Mention it only when relevant, and even then think twice. Make it clear the tool is for yourself and you may accommodate respectful requests which make sense for your vision of the project, but make no promises. Do what’s enjoyable, don’t try to chase fame and notoriety.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever regretted open-sourcing something?

#290

Post by rewgs »

kstrauser wrote: post #71
lrvick wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In California you can just open source it and do not need permission as long as you did it on personal time on personal hardware without referencing proprietary IP. Sure, a company could not like you doing that and find a reason to fire you, but they have no valid legal recourse and you may even be able to sue them for wrongful termination. We are one of the only states that prevents employers from having ownership o…

Note that this is also an enormous part of the reason why CA is a world tech hub. I hear other US states claiming they want to build a similar reputation. “So, you’ll pass laws giving employees ownership of their own personal projects they make on their own time?” “LOL, no!” “Alright, good luck Tupelo.”

Wait, other states claim ownership of personal projects made in their own time? How in the world is that legal?
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