Earlier quoted context omitted.
Careful, that first link redirects you to a NSFW image coming from HN
If it's not safe for your work, you need a different job.
If it's safe for your work, you're probably the intended audience.
WiringPi – deprecated
101–110 of 151 posts
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#102Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aside from whether or not he was being an ass, he was incorrect. The license are rights the author grants other people. The author can release binaries without sources or under any license they desire; just because they also release it under the LGPL does not compel them to provide sources when they distribute it.
Regardless of the legal situation, it would be very unusual to release something under a GPL-like license without the source, since then no one else could comply with the license since they would be unable to provide the modified source. I think we can agree that it would not at all be weird to expect that GPL-licensed project would provide the source. Any project with multiple contributors may be legally compelled t…
> Regardless of the legal situation, it would be very unusual to release something under a GPL-like license without the source, since then no one else could comply with the license since they would be unable to provide the modified source.
Each releases of the software can have different licenses. This means that if the author released a new version of the software binary without the source code nor any copyright notices (like Gorden did) it is not yet released under LGPL. So nobody need to comply LGPL until he releases the source code with the license.
Even if the binary is released under LGPL without the source code, although it is odd, people still can comply the License because it is LGPL - people just need to provide a way how to link the new binary.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#104I've used WiringPI, it's a solid library, and - like a lot of people - I'm glad it exists. But here's a contrarian view - I'm not sure why someone offering a project for free in the educational space would expect users to act like paid professional customers. Or expect them to be non-noob experts who can modify and build the project without hand-holding. Or assume that email would be a viable line of support for a pr…
> So while I sympathise with the rage quit, I don't think it's realistic to release code and just expect users to understand - never mind accept - the terms you set for its use.
I think it's perfectly fine to expect users to understand the terms. They downloaded a piece of code for free from a website with no company or support programme other than "hey I hope this is helpful, if you run into any issues I might be able to help over email". If it turns out that the author can't or won't help, accept your loss and fix it yourself, pay someone to fix it for you or wait for another volunteer to fix it.
Alternatively, they bought some kind of product that included the code. If this product breaks, they must go to the company that makes the product, not the author of some library it uses. It's not like you're going to expect some sparkplug manufacturer to come up with a fix for your car when it breaks down, do you?
People who feel entitled to anything when they get something for free are selfish assholes and should not be defended. They know fully well that they don't have any right for support, but they will make demands regardless, hoping that the other party will break and give in.
I agree that you need to have a plan for people like this, but in most cases, that plan is "I'll just drop the project if it becomes too much of a hassle". And in my opinion, that's a fine plan.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#105I haven't used this library but I maintain a couple moderately well-used python libraries and completely sympathize with these frustrations. The absolute worst was a guy who asked for all sorts of changes then, when I had made it clear I was going a different direction, he tried to start a public shaming on Twitter, this site, Reddit, and even the Wikipedia page (since removed at my own request). It was un-believable…
Big fan of peewee (I love the interface and use it more than SQLA). I’ve reported a few bugs and each time the bug was fixed within at most a day or two, and a release was cut a few days later. As an open source maintainer myself I admire your commitment and productivity.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't help but be reminded of the feud between xscreensaver's author and Debian maintainers. For the curious, the post: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2016/04/i-would-like-debian-to-stop... And the instigatory thread: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=819703
Because jwz appears to have a very short fuse and at one point in time one or a group of users on HN didn't agree with him (as best as I can remember), referrals from HN are redirected to an image of a testicle. Here is a wayback machine link to avoid the image: http://web.archive.org/web/20190810115358/https://www.jwz.or...
This is great.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just free/libre/open source software that has this issue. I run an email security SaaS business. It's closed source, but the suite is free of charge to use for personal, non-commercial domains. We get numerous support requests each day of users on the free tier (who are obviously commercial users btw) that DEMAND us to fix all sorts of email problems for them. They regularly threaten that they will write a b…
> This behavior seems to be culture dependent. I'd say about 90% of our over-demanding free-tier users are from the same region on the planet. I don’t like this dog whistle and the rest of your comment was perfectly fine without it. That said, there are entitled assholes everywhere. I got an email one time asking me for source code for a university project because the guy had found I graduated that course 2 years bef…
> I don’t like this dog whistle and the rest of your comment was perfectly fine without it.
It’s not like he called anyone out specifically. If it’s a true observation, what’s wrong with telling us about it? That it’s culture dependant is an interesting note.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just free/libre/open source software that has this issue. I run an email security SaaS business. It's closed source, but the suite is free of charge to use for personal, non-commercial domains. We get numerous support requests each day of users on the free tier (who are obviously commercial users btw) that DEMAND us to fix all sorts of email problems for them. They regularly threaten that they will write a b…
As someone who's gone back and forth on licensing for personal projects over the years, tried to engage user communities for said personal projects, and tried to use various open source projects — I totally sympathize with the maintainers. As with a lot of things in life, user engagement is a two-way street. If folks want constructive engagement from the users, there needs to be constructive engagement from the maint…
> How are users supposed to react ...
Answers:
1) fork the project, and do a better job yourself
2) suck it up quietly
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#109I can empathize with most of this, but I can't say I understand the "last straw" bit. How is there anything wrong with DanielK's request?
IANAL, but fundamentally I view licenses as grants of rights to non-copyright holders. As the (I think) sole copyright holder on the WiringPi code, the author is morally, if not legally (again, IANAL) entitled to do whatever the hell they want, irrespective of any licenses the code has been released under.
As sole copyright holder, the author is also legally allowed to do whatever the hell they want with it.
Re: WiringPi – deprecated
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would he still be “abused” if he refrained from opening his inbox? Or were there protesters outside his door?
Personalty think if Debian won't change the support email then he should just put in an auto response listing the Debian's maintainers email addresses.
As far as I know, Debian does not ship WiringPI. Debian does not even have an official RPi image. What has any Debian maintainer to do with this?