A question for the open source people

stan goedigi89__e at cox.net
Thu Jun 19 13:21:40 UTC 2008


Michael Harpe wrote:
> What I have always been curious about is this: how many of you actually take advantage of the open source? In other words, how many of you really take the source code and do something with it?
>
>   
I wouldn't say I do this often, but I do look at source when there is a 
problem.  And when I am trying to get something working that is broken 
or unsupported.  For instance, FLAC is unsupported by the version of 
libsndfile in Fedora 7 because the FLAC api changed after it was 
written.  I wrote a patch that fixes this so that I could have FLAC 
support in another program.  And if I need a certain functionality in a 
program and I know it is in an open source program, I take the code and 
use it as a starting point in my own program.
> Personally I don't. I can program in C, i'm pretty good at it. I've just never felt the need to alter the software I use. I'm fine with waiting for the new versions as they come out.
>   
For many things, this is true of me as well.  The core items usually 
work well, and I have no need of duplicating the functionality.
> I'm really not trying to start a fight. I am just curious. I love free software. I think the free software movement has enabled a lot of people who could not afford to operate a computer to do so. Having Linux source code available has trained a generation of system programmers. There's no disputing the value of free, open source software.
>
> Anyway, that's my question. Feel free to respond to me directly.
>
> Mike Harpe
> Sellersburg, IN USA
>
>   




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