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I'm giving up on open source

nutjs.dev

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Re: I'm giving up on open source

#51

Post by lucajona »

For context, I started an open source project that is arguably 10x more popular than Nutjs (20k stars on github vs 2k). I also gave up on maintaining it, but others stepped in to take care of it so it's still running.

The parallels between open source and bolshevism are interesting. I'm not a history expert, but this is just how it appears to me.

  - Contempt for property
  - Pitches itself as a movement by "the people", ends up being a tool of the powerful (e.g. Microsoft's use of open source)
  - Punishes the producers by destroying the economics of production, rewards the stooges
  - Creates a high-low alliance between powerful and unskilled, drains the middle class

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#52

Post by Eji1700 »

unethical_ban wrote: post #40
haswell wrote: post #25

I'm struggling with the framing of all of this. I think it's clear that the author doesn't want to be involved with the realities (as unfortunate as they are) of maintaining an OSS project. There are very real issues with entitled or abusive users that have been well documented. What I don't understand is the expectation that the money would just flow upon publishing the software with a permissive license. It sounds…

Nailed it. Particularly the fact that as valid as OP's situation is, it isn't necessarily indicative of FOSS as a whole. They basically say it in their article: They grew up on the koolaid (no offense, so did I) of how awesome Linux and BSD are, and the GNU principles that closed source software is unethical, to be avoided, and so on. It seems the harsh reality of "Not everyone can be sustained by a nonprofit foundat…

I've always found the diehard linux/FOSS crowd naive and abrasive simply because it seems to totally ignore reality. If you're good at coding, and you enjoy coding, you probably want to do it for a living.

Not as a second job, not as a side project, and certainly not as a charity case that just flat out will not sustain you.

There are precious few things that have the adoption and support linux has, and a lot of that is very much a "right place, right time" thing. The fact that I've seen plenty straight up vilify a coder for daring to want to, you know, make enough to support a library full time has always struck me as self destructive. I'm sure many great coders have given up and moved on to paid projects doing boiler plate because inventing new stuff gets you chewed up and spit out by the community if you monetize.

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#54

Post by somnic »

One thing about the nature of open source software development is that the positive feedback channels are kind of limited. Sure, if someone opens an issue or a pull request on your project that's potentially a positive signal, but it's never a purely positive one. In pretty much every other place people put things they've created online there's room for reviews and comments to help other people decide whether to try something, so if you make something good you can get a lot of people saying what they like about it. This doesn't solve the negativity and entitlement of others, but it likely makes things feel more balanced.

Open source software, culturally and mechanically, doesn't have much room for unqualified positivity.

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#56

Post by codezero »

franciscop wrote: post #31

You do need to develop a very thick skin in OSS to be able to thrive. You need to learn to just block those issues+people, both in the repo and mentally. I'm a nobody, but still some of my projects got a bit popular and I felt the heat, e.g. one of them was a CSS library which was very "beginner friendly", so people came constantly to the Issues to ask help with their CSS and how to do their job (not about the librar…

or we could demand that users of free software shouldn't dictate the culture of the community and that maintainers don't need thick skin. Instead maybe we should ask that users should be respectful and courteous.

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#57

Post by erikerikson »

A lot of open source is commoditizing your complement, moving a project out if a company to reuse or monetize it, or a recruiting drive for talent or customers (i.e. marketing). Of course it's rarely said out loud so it is unsurprising when we get confused. I've been there.

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#58

Post by 999900000999 »

Amen!

OSS is often sponsored by major corporations, for example React JS is essentially a Facebook product.

Creating something like Nut.js for free isn't sustainable, the author needs to eat after all.

Desktop automation is very very hard to do, people aren't usually automating this for fun. It's folks working at companies.

If it's free then you just have a free tool to use, and maybe you'll donate out of the good of your heart. But your not going to ask your boss to donate.

When it's a paid product you have to just tell your boss we need to buy a license.

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#59

Post by Reviving1514 »

Woovie wrote: post #30

I understand some their complaints, others seem like typical support questions. It's inevitable and regardless of making money, it's going to happen. People suck at reading. But, I can't look past the AI art used to generate the YouTube thumbnail on the main page. I'm sure some artist wishes they could work on an art full time, and still be able to pay their bills just as you say you wish about your software. No one…

Do you feel they would have paid someone to make the thumbnail if they didn't AI generate it or would we just have had a thumbnail that's less interesting?

Re: I'm giving up on open source

#60

Post by legostormtroopr »

franciscop wrote: post #31

You do need to develop a very thick skin in OSS to be able to thrive. You need to learn to just block those issues+people, both in the repo and mentally. I'm a nobody, but still some of my projects got a bit popular and I felt the heat, e.g. one of them was a CSS library which was very "beginner friendly", so people came constantly to the Issues to ask help with their CSS and how to do their job (not about the librar…

> You do need to develop a very thick skin in OSS to be able to thrive.

Yet, users or submitters of open-source must be coddled? One of the chief complaints about Linus Torvolds is his blunt communication style in response to poor quality code.

So OSS developers must be able to accept very harsh critism or even insults but always be kind to users who offer nothing in return?

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