Don’t Linux people realize there are a limited number of people to work on these things in their spare time for free?
Where would it end? Far better to have centrally-approved free time activities to ensure those limited people don't get to just enjoy themselves but are instead spending their limited free time wisely.
I don't ever see myself using this DE, but the fact that it seems to be one guy's labor of love kind of makes me happy.
There’s more DE’s than I could shake a stick at and like 5 of them are usable for a an average user.
How would you coerce or incentivize the developers of this DE to work on a more mature project?
Being a cog in a wheel is always a sacrifice, but also more successful. It’s more likely to be usable by regular people and overall more likely to be used.
The biggest problem with desktop Linux is it’s a fragmentation of unpolished projects, many of which overlapping each other.
> Being a cog in a wheel is always a sacrifice, but also more successful. It’s more likely to be usable by regular people and overall more likely to be used.
> The biggest problem with desktop Linux is it’s a fragmentation of unpolished projects, many of which overlapping each other.
Maybe you didn't realise this, but you didn't actually answer the question: exactly how would you convince the people having fun writing their own little project to switch to being an unpaid employee on someone else's project?
I want to hear the actual sentence you'd utter to convince someone to give up a hobby and become an unpaid employee.
I mean, what could I possibly say to you that would make you give up cycling/TV/reading/art/gaming/$HOBBY and spend that time as an unpaid employee for me?
You did, right here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40269321
>>>>> Don’t Linux people realize there are a limited number of people to work on these things in their spare time for free?
How were you expecting someone to interpret "things in their spare time"? What other meaning did you have in mind for that sentence?
Regardless of whether it is a hobby or not, and how that differs from your meaning of "spare time", I still want to know what it is I could say to you that would make you give up your spare time to do unpaid labour for me.
In context, I think this is a legitimate question - you've bemoaned the fact of people doing something "in their spare time" instead of being an unpaid employee, so the question
"What can *I* say to *you* to make *you* spend *your* spare time being *my* unpaid employee?"
If nothing I could possibly say would convince you, that's okay too - just say so, like this "There's nothing you can say to make me your unpaid employee".
Also, being a cog in a wheel does nothing but perpetuate the wheel. If the wheel has a flat tire, or the wheel isn't round, or the wheel is going in the wrong direction, then being a cog provides no benefit to anyone.
This is totally wrong.
The free software world is as great as it is precisely because everyone is free to start their own project without asking for permission.
And I don't think you meant it this way, but can we please not make people feel irresponsible for pursuing projects they find interesting? That's an easy way to kill a new developer's interest, motivation, and enthusiasm. And they're sure not going to pursue projects they don't find interesting.
If you have an idea for a project you want to work on: please go and do it! I don't care if there are already dozens of alternatives. Go forth and create. Maybe you'll make the new best version of the thing, maybe you won't. But you definitely won't if you don't try. And even if your version is no good, if you cultivate a habit of making things you want to make then you'll have the best chances, and at least in the end you'll have lived a life of creation rather than idle consumption.
I agree. Furthermore: It might have some advantages compared with other programs even if it does not have all of the features or other advantages that the other one might have. Also, even if it is no good you or others might improve it later, anyways. There may also be reasons why one user or programmer might prefer to use one program than another, or even someone might use both if they really want to do.
That's just a different way for some people to complain that someone, somewhere, is having fun that they don't approve of.
> I don't ever see myself using this DE, but the fact that it seems to be one guy's labor of love kind of makes me happy.
Yup. I heartily support these kinds of things. I remember how much flack Terry Davis used to get on the internet, but those flamers have long since been forgotten by history while both he and TempleOS have their own Wikipedia entry.
I still have "Use TempleOS daily for a month" on my bucket list :-/
Yep, it ain't their business, period. It's like talking trash on people who like making pottery.
Looking at other comments here I feel like you’re making a lot of assumptions about this project. I’d suggest to zoom out a bit instead and find a different perspective.
I see a hobby project being built just for fun. Maybe author uses it daily themself, but they aren’t aiming it at a larger audience, that’s for sure.
Not everything has to be pragmatic by your standards and useful to millions of people.
But we do not live in that world. The idea that each person‘s efforts are interchangeable and can just be dropped into a project is mistaken.
Open source is better because it's disjointed & chaotic. It's advantage is that it doesn't get stuck, is moving and changing. New ideas happen, are iterated upon. Different people try different things catering to different use cases/scenarios/users.
Open source covering so much terrain so many ways is its strength. It's an enduring base of antifragility, by not being one unsinkable vast idea.