[LRUG] Paths to open source contributions

[Andrew Stewart]

Hello El Rug,

On 7 May 2009, at 14:54, Vahagn Hayrapetyan wrote:
> So if you have open source contributions, I hope you'll shed some  
> light as to why you have them:
> 	• You were solving a problem for yourself (a pet project perhaps),  
> and ended up with extra code that you released as open source;
> 	• You were working on someone else's problem (such as a client's),  
> and ended up with extra code that you released as open source;
> 	• You were bored and decided to make a contribution for the fun of  
> it;
> 	• You were being strategic. You realized that for the Kool Kids to  
> work with you and the Beautiful People to go to bed with you, you  
> NEED to have open source contributions before we arrive at web 3.12.

For me it's the first two.  I think the last two lead to bad  
projects.  Here's an entertaining article germane to this:

http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/08/business-requirements-are-bullshit.html

In a nutshell Yegge says only build stuff you'll use yourself.

I think there's a fifth motivation you could add to the list: you have  
some code which you are too lazy to improve yourself, so you open the  
source so other people can improve it for you.

http://cleanair.highgroove.com/articles/2008/01/03/we-love-open-source

Regards,
Andy Stewart

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