The Rewards of Being an Open-Source Developer

Posted on May 9th, 2006 in General, Spring, Software, Tech.

Basing your business around open-source is pretty tough sometimes, but it all becomes worth it when you get a private forum message like this:

“You guys are clowns for making me register to be able to browse your archives.
CLOWNS.” –AnnoyedInSF

Of course, this genius couldn’t figure out that in fact you don’t have to register to view messages on the Spring Forums, nor did he leave a working email address to tell him so. So Mr. AnnoyedInSF at IP address 206.169.112.210, thanks for making my day. The sweat and tears have definitely been worth it.

Irony aside, it’s amazing what a sense of entitlement habitual use of open-source engenders in some people. Considering the huge amount of value they are getting for nothing, would it actually be that big a deal if for some reason access to the Spring Framework forums did require a registration?

 

6 responses

  1. Omar Irbouh says:

    Added on May 9th, 2006 at 5:38 pm

    This is the funiest comment I ever read with regards to Spring Framework and Spring team :)

  2. Baron Roberts says:

    Added on May 9th, 2006 at 8:27 pm

    Each day I make sure to give thanks for the good things in my life because I have seen that there are very few entitlements in life. After giving thanks for my health, family, and job, I give thanks that the wonderful spirit of my beloved profession is alive and well and living in all the open source projects that I use in my professional and personal development projects. Beyond just working with the technology, I get re-energized by the atmosphere that transcends outsourcing, deadlines, and bottom lines. Godspeed to you!

    Baron

  3. Colin Yates says:

    Added on May 10th, 2006 at 3:53 am

    Well fair enough I say, I mean the universe obviously revolves around “AnnoyedInSF”.

    It is almost as bad as the number of people who ask for help on those forums, get that help and then never say thankyou.

    We are obviously not equal are we. We should just learn to accept our place :)

  4. Corby Page says:

    Added on May 10th, 2006 at 10:26 am

    A self-absorbed San Francisco resident with a sense of entitlement?

    Well, I guess there’s always a first.

  5. a curious reader says:

    Added on May 11th, 2006 at 4:26 am

    While agree that the guy is a ….. and while I am very thankfull for so much good software available for free with very helpfull forums…. I somehow have been in position of open source user. First, as one, I contribute to your project through beleiving in your product and giving you legitimacy thru use for my company. (of course which does so for free). Second, I am often under a lot of stress and pressure. (which has nothing to do with you). Thridly, it is often very hard to use open source on big company projects. All kinds of people are against it. And finally, since you do build business arround you involvement in open source project, you do get somewhat! rewarded for it. As you should .

    All in all, I agree, people are often unthankfull and selfish …..

  6. Doug says:

    Added on December 27th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

    With open-source, noone can really compain. After all, what do they want, their money back???

    I’m a big user of open-source myself. My only problem with it tends to be on the support/development side. If one buys a piece of software one is entitled to support and maybe custom development. However, with open-source this can often be very difficult. This is why I think that the best open-source projects develop a pool of programmers and a forum for “paid work” so if one finds that the open-source is missing one little item, it is possible.

    I recently moved from an excellent paid package to an open source because at least with open-source one can actually get to the code and modify it. A lot of people forget that commercial packages, while possibly having better support, are not only more expensive but also more limiting in this regard.

Leave a Reply