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hpr3967 :: Unsolicited thoughts on running open source software projects

A man talks to himself during his drive home from work.

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Hosted by dnt on Tuesday, 2023-10-17 is flagged as Clean and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
RESERVE SHOW, software governance. 1.

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Duration: 00:07:31
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general.

Some thoughts on the different ways you can run an open source software project, comparing projects like password-store, which are based on a mailing list and use a minimal forge platform, and others that are based on a fancy forge like Github.

I think the fancy forge gives the open source software project a vibe that we're more used to, in our capitalist society. It's a more centralized structure that feels more like a service that's being offered to the public, mostly in one direction. Meanwhile software projects that don't have a platform for creating road maps, issues, pull requests etc actually foster a stronger and more open community structure, rather counter-intuitively, because the software is free and everyone is able to contribute and modify the software for their own use, and they in fact do. The idea of a canonical version of the software is only a convenience, not a defining feature of it.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

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Comment #1 posted on 2025-03-01 17:24:03 by Antoine

My comment about this show

For some years, my default thought was: free software is on github, it is *the* means by which the source code is made available, people can contribute (or can not, the maintaner can decide), fork, post bugs, and the file can be directly downloaded (with some other options, of course, but the main scheme can be translated to what a github-site is).

I'm not a developer nor anything, I just like to absorb some knowledge, so this is a layman perspective. Listening to your show gave me a breath of fresh air: "No, this is not a must for free software". In one example, as you gave: the software may have its own web page, freely made (to be known), but entirely maintained by exchanges of talk and code by e-mail, in a mailing list.

All you brought here gave me a perspective of much more simplicity, rethinking what I envision as free software today. Because, many times, many projects, there are issues opened, and no answer ever, even with development going on, like saying: "we are in github, with all the resources it brings, by inertia (because everybody does), but we don't give attention to users or developers)". A talk you gave to rethink what developers want with their software, and do according to the objetives. Thanks for the show.

Sorry if I expressed bad, not wanting to diminish nor intending to summarize what you said.

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