I open source all of my projects. Most people I encounter are reasonably polite, but of course even my most popular is used by a tiny fraction of the number of Gnome users. In any case, I long ago stopped caring about being beholden to users. Often they’re doing me favors and finding issues I haven’t, and some even provide useful analysis that saves me work. A few provide contributions. But at the end of the day, I do what I do for me, and anyone else who benefits from it provides a small dose of dopamine from being useful.
I regularly fork projects and implement changes I want; I also file PRs, but in the case the upstream author has different opinions about it, requiring work I don’t think it’s necessary, I just let it go and maintain my own fork.
This is not Ideal Open Software Development, with many people contributing to a common goal. It’s fractured and selfish. But the other way, it becomes work, and nobody’s paying me for this, and so I give no fucks.
My mental health improved drastically once I stopped emotionally caring about the opinions of my users. I still care about the technicalities, but only insofar as they affect me or I deem them to be a superior solution. Key to this is not engaging emotionally; if I’m not interested in working on it, I just say so: I have other priorities, but an happy to review and maybe accept PRs.
It’s BTW funny how no one here criticizes the behavior I mentioned but instead attacks my conclusion I draw from that behavior. Which only further solidifies my decision.
I would like the feedback to know why people do not like my project and if I feel like I should care about that perspective.
Further, gnome is hard to ignore, and getting harder all the time. Beyond being the default, even when I go to the trouble of switching the desktop, certain applications in GTK will bring the Gnome design language wherever it goes, and it’s deviated enough to not be possible to theme into consistency. It’s design decisions permeate the distributions and create some headaches even when you make a fair effort to opt out of it.
that is unironically amazing and the Foss Community needs people like you. And if i ever use one of your Projects, I’ll be sure to donate to you.
But: That’s you and not me. I don’t have the Time or Energy to maintain Projects for other people. My Projects are usually for my exact Usecase and that only. I don’t have the Energy or will dealing with people saying “doesn’t work for me” or “please update” or “please add [Feature that i don’t need]”
This Post and the Comments here are a prime example why i will never opensource any of my Projects.
Too many people here that feel like the Developers owe them something.
Wait until you see how people talk about closed source projects they have paid for.
Same thing, except you will owe them something.
I open source all of my projects. Most people I encounter are reasonably polite, but of course even my most popular is used by a tiny fraction of the number of Gnome users. In any case, I long ago stopped caring about being beholden to users. Often they’re doing me favors and finding issues I haven’t, and some even provide useful analysis that saves me work. A few provide contributions. But at the end of the day, I do what I do for me, and anyone else who benefits from it provides a small dose of dopamine from being useful.
I regularly fork projects and implement changes I want; I also file PRs, but in the case the upstream author has different opinions about it, requiring work I don’t think it’s necessary, I just let it go and maintain my own fork.
This is not Ideal Open Software Development, with many people contributing to a common goal. It’s fractured and selfish. But the other way, it becomes work, and nobody’s paying me for this, and so I give no fucks.
My mental health improved drastically once I stopped emotionally caring about the opinions of my users. I still care about the technicalities, but only insofar as they affect me or I deem them to be a superior solution. Key to this is not engaging emotionally; if I’m not interested in working on it, I just say so: I have other priorities, but an happy to review and maybe accept PRs.
Or i can just do what i am doing now and keep the Repos as private and only use them for myself, family and friends
Yeah, that’s fair. It’s your work; you have no moral obligation to share it. Despite what the commies might say.
You can just ignore them you know
Or I can just save myself the effort.
It’s BTW funny how no one here criticizes the behavior I mentioned but instead attacks my conclusion I draw from that behavior. Which only further solidifies my decision.
you as a developer owe them nothing. You can just be a dick. It’s allowed.
I would like the feedback to know why people do not like my project and if I feel like I should care about that perspective.
Further, gnome is hard to ignore, and getting harder all the time. Beyond being the default, even when I go to the trouble of switching the desktop, certain applications in GTK will bring the Gnome design language wherever it goes, and it’s deviated enough to not be possible to theme into consistency. It’s design decisions permeate the distributions and create some headaches even when you make a fair effort to opt out of it.
that is unironically amazing and the Foss Community needs people like you. And if i ever use one of your Projects, I’ll be sure to donate to you.
But: That’s you and not me. I don’t have the Time or Energy to maintain Projects for other people. My Projects are usually for my exact Usecase and that only. I don’t have the Energy or will dealing with people saying “doesn’t work for me” or “please update” or “please add [Feature that i don’t need]”