The open-source mindset
I think – and this is nothing but my personal opinion – that being a dick is not helpful. Those who know me may burst into laughter because I can be a real asshole too. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary. What I found worrisome was a discussion1 I’ve read (and participated in) on GitHub – or some of the opinions that were voiced there to be more precise.
The spark
What started this discussion was a post by Alexander Trauzzi (@atrauzzi) who brought forth the proposal that one M$ multi-platform UI-Toolkit should have put extra thought and resources in support for Linux. This post received… let’s say mixed… replies. At the time of writing, 35 people have participated in the discussion and the reactions are 56 thumbs up, 21 thumbs down, and 3 laughters. Now if you ask me, this is just funny – the proposal, not the reactions.
While clearly not meant as a joke, to me it feels like one. I can understand C# Lovers who want to use Linux just fine in that they want to be able to use what is arguably one of its greatest features: an easy way to create a GUI. Now, to me this is completely irrelevant because I’ve always been “that backend guy”, but what was not was the outrage of some users (among others @asdf8dfafjk). In particular, his wisdom that @atrauzzi was not entitled to his opinion because he did not contribute code to a project. (which is especially funny, seeing that he didn’t provide code himself)
Tell me this, how many pulls have you made to this project yet?
That’s right, it’s 0, you freeloaser (That word is a mixture of freeloader, and another word)
– @asdf8dfafjk2
The purest of wisdom in my humble opinion.
My problem
So… what do I care? I don’t use C#, let alone this project. I have not contributed any code to it. One should think that I could not care less – and in a way I do. I don’t care in the slightest whether maui will survive even until winter. My issue lies with the way the community discussed.
- Is contribution measured in LOC?
- Is documentation considered LOC?
- Do I have no right to voice my opinion if I have not contributed?
To all these questions my answer would be no as soon as you care about a project or use it, you should be able to voice your opinion (and even if you do not care, you can still have something interesting to provide to an argument)
Oh wait, atrauzzi doesn’t pay taxes, he’s a linux (l)user.
– @asdf8dfafjk3
I can’t really tell you why his comments just make me feel uncomfortable. Is it a lack of respect for other peoples opinion? Is it the way his comments are neither productive nor helpful? I honestly can’t tell. It just bugs me. Reading further one can, fortunately, find way more helpful and interested replies. Replies from people who even if they disagreed, did so in a way that brought forth real arguments™ and not just discredited @atrauzzi as a person4.
Bottom Line
Now to boil it down: Can we please all agree that we can disagree without thinking of our opponent (TODO: look for less loaded language) as some kind of enemy. I feel that this is a problem we feel as a society in general. That guy in the other party. It’s not a different opinion, it’s a dangerous mindset THAT NEEDS TO BE ERADICATED! I feel that this is not a healthy stance and I don’t think that this is something that helps us solve any issues; it makes it harder by seeing people in black and white; friend and foe.
Please, be kind to each other.
