Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

$1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 139 posts

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#41

Post by jdiff »

realusername wrote: post #33
krackers wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing it's the fact that linux has in-tree drivers, so you necessarily need to "patch the kernel" in order to write/fix a driver for a non-standard compliant device?

How else is that supposed to work? You either fix a driver in the kernel or a driver outside the kernel, it's not going to make that big of a difference to the person who has to fix it.

The difference is that the end user doesn't have to do it. Someone else is going to do it. Just like it is on Windows.

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#42

Post by cyphar »

TZubiri wrote: post #35
kykat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that 2k is really really cheap for the expertise in kernel development

But also lots of kernel developers work for free, so the average price of their work is very low

"Lots" is a relative term, but the overwhelming majority of kernel developers are employed and usually do kernel work as part of their job (usually at least ~80% but it could be argued as high as 97% depending on how you interpret the breakdown done by LWN of each release[1]).

[1]: https://lwn.net/Articles/1038358/

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#43

Post by layer8 »

ffsm8 wrote: post #38
layer8 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that “fixing this issue required weeks of intensive work from multiple people”, the price would have to be prohibitively high. More generally, software is really, really expensive to produce and maintain. The economics only work at scale, in particular for B2C. (Maybe AI will change that, if it becomes more reliable.)

Eh, I think you're underestimating some people perseverance. You generally only need multiple people for timely action, and it usually even slows you down (from the perspective of total hours spent) Like 2k bug bounty? I guarantee you some people would be willing to spend a lot of time for that. But yeah, people which are gainfully employed and have a decent salary - likely not.

People will have fun spending their free time on such projects. But it’s virtually impossible to turn it into “an actual thriving business model” that people can make a living on.

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#44

Post by convolvatron »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #27
kykat wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that 2k is really really cheap for the expertise in kernel development

It is, but it's amazing how cheap kernel expertise is relative to comparable experience in other specialties like frontend.

there are a lot more kernel programmers than kernel work

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#45

Post by mrbombastic »

pm215 wrote: post #28
AshamedCaptain wrote: post #10

I wish there was an actual thriving business model like this -- just fixing most annoying bugs, for a price, of commonly used desktop software. Why proprietary software companies cannot or do not want to provide this service is over me. Perhaps I'm too much used to consulting.

For small stuff, the cost is just going to be too much for people to want to pay it. This bug had a $1900 bounty attached. Let's put the cost of one software engineer (salary plus overheads) at $200,000 a year, which I think is an underestimate. That's $3850 a week, so unless your bug can definitely be fixed (including getting any necessary hardware, investigation, fixing, code review overhead, etc) in two or three d…

200k is a fairly high salaried software eng in expensive markets, a bounty program like this would be open worldwide and many people would be willing to work for a fraction of that, quality control is another concern but take a look at prices on sites like upwork and bids for this type of work and realize 200k is nowhere near the lower baseline.

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#46

Post by mrbombastic »

hackyhacky wrote: post #31
akatsutki wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not useful for fixing things like this. Only frontend React.js

> Only frontend React.js Good suggestion, but I discovered that React was not able to fix my Linux kernel, either, for some reason.

Have you tried asking an llm to use react to fix your Linux kernel?

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#47

Post by pm215 »

cyphar wrote: post #42
TZubiri wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But also lots of kernel developers work for free, so the average price of their work is very low

"Lots" is a relative term, but the overwhelming majority of kernel developers are employed and usually do kernel work as part of their job (usually at least ~80% but it could be argued as high as 97% depending on how you interpret the breakdown done by LWN of each release[1]). [1]: https://lwn.net/Articles/1038358/

And I would guess that most of the kernel devs who are "working for free" are doing the stuff they personally enjoy and find satisfaction in working on, because it's a hobby -- so many of them are probably not interested in fixing random bugs for cash either.

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#48

Post by amelius »

pm215 wrote: post #28
AshamedCaptain wrote: post #10

I wish there was an actual thriving business model like this -- just fixing most annoying bugs, for a price, of commonly used desktop software. Why proprietary software companies cannot or do not want to provide this service is over me. Perhaps I'm too much used to consulting.

For small stuff, the cost is just going to be too much for people to want to pay it. This bug had a $1900 bounty attached. Let's put the cost of one software engineer (salary plus overheads) at $200,000 a year, which I think is an underestimate. That's $3850 a week, so unless your bug can definitely be fixed (including getting any necessary hardware, investigation, fixing, code review overhead, etc) in two or three d…

You are forgetting that typically many users want a bug fixed.

Re: $1900 Bug Bounty to Fix the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 16IAX10H's Speakers on Linux

#50

Post by IshKebab »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #10

I wish there was an actual thriving business model like this -- just fixing most annoying bugs, for a price, of commonly used desktop software. Why proprietary software companies cannot or do not want to provide this service is over me. Perhaps I'm too much used to consulting.

I think the real issues are attributing work, and fear of doing a ton of work only to be pipped at the post.
Post reply on HN