Don't feel guilty about not contributing to open source

jvns.ca

21 points·jvns··3 comments

Why do people always focus on the code part? Even when the code is written in a language you don't understand, you can contribute by making the documentation, install process, or general community better.

In the article one of the questions asked is, "Is the documentation good?" If it's not, but you use and like the project, that is your opportunity. Perhaps you can see there are a lot of bugs filed, but nobody is triaging them. Even when you don't know the programming language the project uses, getting or making reproducible test cases for bugs is something you can do.

I completely agree with the "relatedness" aspect. If you're not using a project in your day-to-day work it's hard to stay involved with it. The best Open Source developers are those who understand the perspective of the users, because they are a user.

It seems "just" using open source code is unglamourous in this industry. Everyone wants to create it, which leads to too many solutions to the same problems and not enough support for any one. Organizations that simply use open source need to receive more respect.

Organizations that simply use open source need to receive more respect.

Could you explain? While there are other ways of contributing than just supplying code, to gain my respect organizations must contribute something back. I don't see how the world as a whole benefits when a company uses "open source" instead buying something commercial or developing their own solution. It may be a smart choice, but not one that should garner additional respect.

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