real reasons why people DON’T use opensource:
- bugs in apps with no community on irc/discord/matrix/xmpp to ask about (yes, i talk about you @libreoffice )
- assholes in communities if such exist (yes i talk about archlinux and @godot )
- enshittification and slowly going back to not being opensource (yes i talk about @mozilla )
- and if all of the above combined it just creates resistance against opensource

small opensource can do nothing until big opensource does the step…

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 hour ago

    Let’s address your points:

    • bugs in apps with no community on irc/discord/matrix/xmpp to ask about (yes, i talk about you @libreoffice )

    Have you ever tried asking for help on a closed source software vendor’s support forum? More often than not, it’s either dumb boilerplate that makes you feel like a mentally challenged newbie (“Try reinstalling. If the issue persists, try rebooting”) or it’s crickets because the vendor won’t communicate on its products’ flaws. As for other users, they’re just as clueless as you because they don’t have access to anymore information than you.

    At least if you find a bug in open source software and you have the programming chops, you can either check the code to see what might be going on, or fix it yourself.

    • assholes in communities if such exist (yes i talk about archlinux and @godot )

    There are assholes in every community.

    enshittification and slowly going back to not being opensource (yes i talk about @mozilla )

    Enshittification is first and foremost a phenomenon that happens when a company tries to maximize its profits at everybody else’s expense. As such, it occurs much, MUCH more often in proprietary, for-profit software.

    Also, way to pick the wrong example:

    Firstly Mozilla is its own special kind of stupid.

    Secondly, say what you will, but for all Mozilla’s, Firefox’ and Thunderbird’s faults, you can still download a good browser and a good email client for free after more than a quarter of a century. Which software vendor can you say the same thing of?

    Opensource is not perfect. Nothing ever is. But always remember it’s mostly composed of people who code for free and give their work away. IMHO, the right way forward is to support the good and ignore the bad, and pitch in and contribute if you can, rather than rant.

  • Luke@lemmy.ml
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    14 hours ago

    I don’t think this list is fair at all.

    no community on irc/discord/matrix/xmpp to ask about (yes, i talk about you @libreoffice )

    LibreOffice has a help page with a bunch of methods to find community support, including Discourse, a bug tracker, Mastodon, and a bunch of other avenues (and yes, they have an IRC channel also) to find help.

    assholes in communities if such exist (yes i talk about archlinux and @godot )

    The Godot community is one of the nicest around, maybe second only to Blender’s community. But you are right, assholes are everywhere. I got news for you though, bud: there are assholes in the communities around closed-source projects too; far more of them, usually.

    enshittification and slowly going back to not being opensource (yes i talk about @mozilla )

    You are claiming that a reason why people don’t use open-source is because… they don’t use open-source? Circular reasoning is not an argument for anything, you might as well just not have included this bullet to begin with. If you avoid open-source just because “Mozilla might not use open-source for everything” then you’re just punishing yourself for no reason.

    small opensource can do nothing until big opensource does the step

    You can always be the change you want to see. You don’t need permission from “big opensource”, whatever that even means. Every project starts small, with an idea and some code added to a repository that is shared with others for feedback and/or collaboration. You don’t have to limit yourself because others aren’t doing their project the way you think they should.

      • IcyToes@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        What do you even make? Is it even good?

        Have you even tried to share it in open source communities and explain what it does, why it is good, and how it differs from competitors. Contributors come from users. Users come for good software that they are aware of.

        Do you get contributors on GitHub? Is stars about validation or actual engagement from users. Why do stars even mean anything?

      • Luke@lemmy.ml
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        14 hours ago

        That sounds frustrating, I can see why you might be discouraged when it feels like nobody cares about your project.

        I am not a marketing guru, my projects also have nobody paying attention to them, but I do know that if you want collaboration you usually have to ask for it. Let people know; post about your project and explain your goals and ask people for help. It’s never guaranteed that people will see the value in what you’re doing, but they probably won’t if you make it closed-source either. You’re blaming the wrong things here, my friend.

        Still, good luck with your project, and good on you for posting it on codeberg, that’s a great first step to getting some interest!

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    13 hours ago

    Open source software is a minor miracle. I consider the people who give away their hard work saints. That doesn’t mean they can’t also be assholes. We have a bunch of different distributions of multiple full-featured operating systems. Credit where credit is due.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      20 minutes ago

      Many of the developers who worked on your favorite and most critical FOSS projects got paid. PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPMENT! It is a fantastic model that is fair to everyone and enriches humanity.

  • Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip
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    14 hours ago

    Bugs in closed source software is just sending them a post and them saying have you tried restarting your computer. I’m not lying that’s how jokes it is.

  • jlow (he / him)@discuss.tchncs.de
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    14 hours ago

    Meh, I don’t think I agree. Sure, these things are problems and sure they are a problem in OS spaces (the last one obs only with OS) but

    • projects have the right to choose what communication systems they use (most of them are unpaid volunteers doing this in their free time I’m pretty certain), yes, some are more cumbersome than others for different sets of people, it sure would be cool if they’d use the one I/you like. But that goes for literally any project / product?
    • toxic people exist in all communities, if moreso in OS than (random example) Star Wars fandom, is very debatable. How toxic are the Microsoft forums? I honestly have no idea.
    • Mozilla doing what Mozilla does, yeah, it’s a meme at this point. Whatever.

    small opensource can do nothing until big opensource does the step…

    Why? Small open source projects totally can use “modern”™ communication channels, have nice communities and don’t enshitify. Why would they not because big project (in your opinion) aren’t doing it? I overall have super good experiences with almost all OS forums I’ve ever been to, Manjaro, Inscape, Krita, Godot, KDE, Bazzite, Fedora and so many others.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    13 hours ago

    *I need money and I made this.

    I don’t like capitalism, but I am forced to live with it. I idealize open source software; but if I made a thing nobody else thought of, I’m sorry but I’m going to try and get paid so I don’t have to live in the gutter.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.ca
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      22 minutes ago

      False dichotomy. You can get paid for writing open source software. That was my entire career. It’s a choice; a matter of values and priorities. Not every byte I wrote was open source, especially in the beginning, but it’s not hard to go that way, and thrive.