Mauriat Miranda     mjmwired

Change of Direction

In certain scenarios I am a little skeptical of Linux and open source applications as worthwhile competitors for closed source or proprieraty alternatives. This is not to say I do not think that there is any lack in potential. In my opinion I do disagree with some choices made by open source projects or linux distributions. In any event the point of this post is not to argue any of that. I was reading a post claiming that Linux needs critics, and I do agree with this. The nice thing the author points out is there is a difference between a complaint (negative) and criticism (positive).

I don’t think I have ever really made any constructive criticism of Linux or Fedora. Unlike the author who wrote the above post, I am a software developer. I could try to help more instead of complaining. (I have complained a lot.) I have never submitted a patch or even filed a bug report. I have probably spent more time trying to get an older unsupported version of software working than I have trying to help with the shortcomings of the newer version. This, I will admit, is quite counterproductive.

For the things that I feel are important I plan to try a bit harder - slowly but surely.

Personally I still feel that Linux and open source will never be a complete solution for all my needs, but whenever possible I hope that with some effort it will be.

Posted in: Linux, Opinion, Philosophy,

3 Comments:

  • Jeff Schiller on April 4, 2009 - 09:09 AM

    Great to hear this “positive shift”! :)

    I’ve decided it’s a good idea to contribute patches to various projects I’m interested in too. There are just too many benefits:

    - actually helps improve the project (makes my own and other’s lives easier)
    - keeps me learning things
    - good on a resume (I’ve got a page where I track contributions)

  • Mauriat on April 4, 2009 - 12:12 PM

    @Jeff:

    Great idea about the contributions page. I really like it.

  • Rob Russell on April 4, 2009 - 01:13 PM

    Cool. I spend a lot of time working around bugs but I’ve done a little contributing here and there. I find it easier to pick some projects that I’ll submit bug reports on so I’ll be more useful, since there can be a learning curve to contributing for each project.