I wish more people would understand that different people use their computers for different things.

[dotstdy@mastodon.social]

I wish more people would understand that different people use their computers for different things. For me, gnome is unusable. This is not hyperbolic, I literally cannot use my computer for the things I want to use my computer for in gnome. But that doesn't imply you will have the same experience. Don't be so reflexively dismissive when people give feedback.

[dotstdy@mastodon.social]

We gotta find a middle ground between "the customer is always right" and "it's open source, fuck you"

[dominikg@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@dotstdy
The simple answer is that you are not a customer if you are not paying for the product.

[dotstdy@mastodon.social]

@dominikg hence why I said there needs to be a middle ground. Writing quality software requires engaging with the people using your software. Whether they pay or not.

[dominikg@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@dotstdy I just don't know if there's room enough for a company to come in to both develop open source software features and to sell it as a product.
Maybe some sort of per feature crowd funding might be more appropriate?

[dotstdy@mastodon.social]

@dominikg idk how you fund it honestly, it's too hard. I just mean generally though, even if you're working for free, there's no point having an adversarial relationship with your users. Especially not if you're a capital P Project with lots of contributors and users. It's just super unhealthy.

[dominikg@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@dotstdy Ah, I was talking more generally about starting a company to write and sell versions of open source software with features that customers want, and not about particular projects.

[oblomov@sociale.network]

@dominikg @dotstdy this only works up to a certain extent if the changes don't get upstreamed and/or the modified version doesn't get enough of a userbase to warrant its maintenance, because over time (and in certain areas that's relatively quickly) it will lapse and become incompatible with the rest of the ecosystem.