I see posts everywhere, discussing open source products: “how shitty X is”. Let me list some examples of X:
- systemd
- linux (in general, or kernel due to a lacking feature)
- KDE/Gnome/any other DE/WM
- libreoffice
- ubuntu or any other distro
While everyone has right to complain whatever they don’t like, a general attitude about open source software got my attention: Smugness.
I’ll create a strawman here, to not offend anyone directly, let’s call him “Adam”.
Adam thinks a developer (or group of developers) are somehow “honored” or having crazy profit/fame, when their product is being used. He thinks an open source program must not only be free, but also perfect for his needs.
I have some sad news for you, Adam.
Open source developers owe you NOTHING. Even if you donated them, your 5$ donation doesn’t mean anything, in contrast to days (even years) spent by those people.
This is a community of people, who thinks “hmm, current solutions don’t work for me, so I’ve created an alternative, I’ll also share it”.
If you don’t like the resulting product, don’t use it. Creators won’t feel it, just like they didn’t feel it when your majesty decided to try their product.
Ah, also you might just copy the product and change it however you like. That’s the thing about open source, remember? But no. Adam wants some changes on the project, and they must be done by the owners of the project.
Funny enough, Adam claims “I will never use X” most of the time, because that’s the ONLY thing he can do (and the only thing he thinks which will scare the creators). Because come on, what will the maintainers do if glorious Adam chooses to abandon it!! You won’t see him offering any help or being thankful for offering a free and open source product. Heck, most of the time he doesn’t even open a bug report and correctly explain what the problem is.
Adam is here just to eat and complain, and he can eat shit.
