Re: distributions: UBUNTU vs DEBIAN
On Sunday 23 April 2006 23:14, Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
> I don't understand why the idea of spending money to get an open
> source solution seems, apparently, unreasonable to you. I'm grateful
> for all of the free (as in beer) open source software I'm able to use.
> But as a developer, I'd get mighty P.O.'ed if someone told me I "had"
> to code something. Offer me money, and I might accept. (Note: I'm
> not a debian developer. I don't mean that anyone should offer me
> money to write something for debian, although if enough money were
> offered, I might consider it *grin*.)
Hi,
As Monique I'm not a debian developer, but I'm an opensource (OS) developer,
as in beer and as in speech. I write web aplications. I'm currently working
on 5, all of them in HTML::Mason:
* BWPMS (www.bwpms.com), a multisite content manager, design independent,
modular, that I use mostly to create small business web sites. The sources
aren't yet available, as I didn't had time to redraw and reimplement
www.code.online.pt, the site where I share all my os webapps. I call it,
currently, 0.1.0 and will release the version 0.1.1 when I redraw the code
online site.
* MaBliki (www.code.online.pt/view/MaBliki), A Bliki implementation, now with
0.2.0 under development, already being used in www.cultodavida.com, that is
multisite, and uses the same template engine that BWPMS, consequently,
completly design independent. 0.1.x is available, 0.2.0 will be when some few
more features are implemented (Edit posts, RDF and Atom feeds, etc).
* Hercules (being used in stats.camelot.co.pt), a webstats engine, based in
POE (Perl), capable of handling the stats for a small Portal (large for
Portuguese standard, as it was in use, in my time, at www.iol.pt), processing
2 millions pageviews a day. I want to improve him for multi-host capabilities
(having several servers processing stats in parelel).
* Comercium (not a sharable install yet), a simple ERP for small business.
It's designed to have Sells (Prospecting, Clients, invoices, repeated sells),
Buys (vendors, buy, repeated buys), Products (with and without Stocks -
fisical products have stock, and services don't have), Finances (Control cash
and cashflow, clients payments and prepayments, vendor payments), and
accounting (that will have accounting reports, to be defined yet). This
already allow me to invoice my clients, but almost everything else is yet to
be implemented.
* Tendere (an ecommerce plataform), mostly specified, but yet to be started.
And this is just to say that, as an opensource developer a mostly code for my
self, release my code for those who may want it, and in true I only implement
those "sugestions" that keep the project on the path I thought to it, as part
of the project.
But I'm also a paid devel. I need to pay my bills, so I have to get paid for
something, and that happens with most OS devels. So, most time I'm paid for
eight (8) hours a day coding, most time added by two (2) more hours in public
transports (metro, train, whatever), from home to the client, and back home,
and yet one (1) more for lunch. That makes eleven (11) hours a day. And this
assuming everything work fine in the paid projects. At times that don't
happen.
The point is: after eleven hours I'm tired. I'm as human as most, and even if
by definition a coder is someone who turns caffeine into code, and even if
every single day I drink 2+ liters of "Coca-Cola", the time I have to
concentrate in the opensource projects is limited. And that happens with most
OS devels, I assume.
As a freelancer/self-employed coder (SEC), sometimes I have idle days, that I
use as much as possible to my OS projects. But as a SEC, I also need to
prospect new clients, I also need to manage my business, I also need to meet
my consultants (Accounting, Lawyer, etc), and again, my idle days are not
that idle.
So, yes, I limit the change I make in my OS projects to those I think will
improve the project the way I need it improved or in a way I think will
really be an improvement to the project. Obviously there are other ways to
make me think on a change as an improvement... money.
If someone ask me "I need this change in an OS project, and I don't mind if
that change is open sourced", then I will make the change lowerpriced that If
it was a closed source application. If someone come to me and say "I liked
your project XX, but I need some special future", I will happly make the
change below my regular rate.
I can do this, but I can't write every single change someone think could be
useful in my OS projects for free imediatly on request. That would be a
fulltime job, that I would happly take, but that don't pay my bills. If I had
some incoming stream that paid my bills, I would take more time with my OS
projects, would implement more features, and would try to make everyone
happy.
For now, for free, the most I can do is make what I code for myself available,
and consider the sugestions that are made to me. If someone want something I
don't have time to implement, will have to buy me time. Cheapper, but yet
enought to pay my bills.
I think the same happens with most OS devels.
Hugs and Kisses,
themage
--
Merlin, the Mage
http://www.sites-favoritos.com/user/merlin
http://www.cultodavida.com
http://www.code.online.pt
Carpe Vitam
Reply to: