16 votes

Dear user

6 comments

  1. Eric_the_Cerise
    Link
    I'm a developer. I've often worked on public-facing projects where I've had to interact directly with both clients and users ... point being, I get it. I believe I am generally very polite and...

    I'm a developer. I've often worked on public-facing projects where I've had to interact directly with both clients and users ... point being, I get it. I believe I am generally very polite and respectful when dealing with FOSS devs/maintainers.

    I own 2 System76 machines running Pop_OS, an Ubuntu-downstream distro they've developed primarily for the Linux machines they sell. Pop_OS is developed almost entirely in-house, by paid devs. Nevertheless, it is still fully FOSS ... source is available, anyone can contribute, anyone can download/install it on anything.

    Recently, I ran into some significant issues with Pop_OS, and I was introspectively amazed at how quickly I turned into a raging asshole when dealing with the Customer Support guys there. I had paid for the machines, and subconsciously, I felt I'd paid for the OS as well, and my sense of entitlement kicked in, hard. I had given them much money and I deserved first-class kid-glove treatment.

    I think most people feel the same way about all software, and don't have that "paid for" vs "made by volunteers" mental switch.

    System76 never did solve my problem(s?), but throughout several months of increasing nastiness from me, they remained—mostly—polite and professional.

    Ultimately, I had to do a fresh install of the old 18.04 LTS release and wait for the 20.04 release. The various 18.10, 19.04 and 19.10 releases never again worked on my machine; to this day, IDK why.

    5 votes
  2. [5]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. [4]
      ohyran
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      So ok, "hi" I wrote that post part of a challenge by Drew DeVault and partly because I was burned out, again, and another set of devs where burned out and just disappeared connected to the same...

      So ok, "hi"

      I wrote that post part of a challenge by Drew DeVault and partly because I was burned out, again, and another set of devs where burned out and just disappeared connected to the same project as me.
      At the same time people on Mastodon (I have never been connected to Mastodon btw so that isn't part of it) where explaining to me that we where ableist for not being able to do testing for people who are differently abled (we had to wing it in the project I'm connected to because we wanted it but had no ability to test it properly) and that I and others involved was quite literally "a shit" for not being able to afford complete testing of those issues.
      AND that it was ableist saying "I don't have time, can't you help do it" if they didn't have the skillset to do it. They also claimed it was ableist asking for proper bug reports since they already wrote what they wanted there and couldn't I write the bug report for them? (Hence the jab at "ableist" that was being flung around Mastodon at that time like a rock at anyone standing up. I since quit Mastodon btw because the people I agreed with where using arguments and tactics I hated and the people I absolutely did not agree with where pretending that this was an argument in itself)

      That combined with the Google/Facebook effect where people are used to being treated as "valued customers" by free services - because they forget Google and Facebook rake in cash from their info. Which we obviously don't.

      They always claimed they would quit using it if we didn't hop to it and I always wondered secretly why they thought I cared.

      So I got angry and decided I was going to write off my frustration and hope it would fall into the cracks of the internet - which is why its pretty ehm ... dramaesque?


      Sidenote: After my first burn out years ago I quit my job that sponsored my work on this thing and did it on my free time (which I then had a lot of) because I couldn't in good conscience take cash that could go to someone who wasn't burned out. So when this was written was years after I stopped getting paid for doing it. I had worked four years, day and night, basically around the clock at times with this thing and in the end my brain couldn't handle it and I'm still paying the price for that (agoraphobia, panic attacks, night terrors and depression) but its slowly getting better. Upshot is that in the project/community I am connected to (still) more people talked a tad more openly about emotional and mental health.

      So while the project/community want more people in it - there is zero worth in someone just using it. Its good that people like it, but its not some sort of magical contribution.

      EDIT: the vast majority of contributors (around 99%) to the project/community I am in, do not get paid. Those who do are those sponsored by different companies to do so, sponsorships they themselves organize and get.

      5 votes
      1. [3]
        unknown user
        Link Parent
        It may be good to elaborate on that somewhere, when you feel like saying something again. "You hurt me too much" is personal. "You bitches need to learn respect for free software" is actionable.

        the Google/Facebook effect where people are used to being treated as "valued customers" by free services - because they forget Google and Facebook rake in cash from their info. Which we obviously don't.

        It may be good to elaborate on that somewhere, when you feel like saying something again. "You hurt me too much" is personal. "You bitches need to learn respect for free software" is actionable.

        6 votes
        1. [2]
          ohyran
          Link Parent
          Thats a very good point. (should have filled up with more exact info and context etc too tbh... )

          Thats a very good point.

          (should have filled up with more exact info and context etc too tbh... )

          1 vote
          1. unknown user
            Link Parent
            Can't blame yourself. This kinda shit shakes you when all you want is give to the world.

            Can't blame yourself. This kinda shit shakes you when all you want is give to the world.

            3 votes
  3. CrazyOtter
    Link
    The author sounds very cynical about open source users but we don't know their experiences so difficult to comment on that. What I think is more interesting how people view free open source...

    The author sounds very cynical about open source users but we don't know their experiences so difficult to comment on that.

    What I think is more interesting how people view free open source interactions.

    Personal
    Not really as we almost never know who uses our software and are unlikely to ever meet in person.

    Charity
    Helping the needy, poor or humanity in general, maybe in a few cases but rarely imo. I'd be interested to see some examples though.

    Commercial
    The "free" part voids this interpretation. But I think we're so used to commercial interactions in our everyday life that it becomes very difficult to view things from a non monetary point of view when we use something built by another person.

    Software is fairly unique in that we can distribute many additional copies no extra cost. Maybe this means we have to adopt new patterns of interaction and discourse.

    1 vote