May 24

I've been a contributing member of the open source community for over 10 years. A pretty short amount of time in comparison to the movement itself, but more than enough to have formed some strong opinions.

We all have our own reasons for making the source code to our software freely available. I think we'd all have to agree that ego plays a big part. There's nothing quite like the ego stroke you get when a large number of people send you thank-you emails.

There's also nothing quite like the overwhelming feeling you get when an even larger number of people start asking for more features, or start reporting bugs. Open source software is a double-edged sword in this regard.

When you release your source code to the world, you're making an unwritten contract with the community that you'll be around to answer questions and keep the software moving forward into the future. For the smaller open source projects, this commitment is probably more than the author bargained for.

The larger open source projects like FreeBSD and Apache have a tremendous amount of momentum behind them which alleviates a lot of those commitment problems. There's also companies that pay developers to work on such projects full-time.

But the smaller projects tend to have a single developer who puts in a few hours of coding before bedtime. And when you're managing a few of these projects it may take a bit of time before you cycle around to the one that needs some attention.

By now you're probably thinking "okay, so what's your point?", and this my friend, is where you come in.

Are you making use of open source code that lacks a feature, or has a problem? Instead of making a feature request, or opening a bug ticket, why not write a bit of code and submit a patch instead? You'll instantly become an open source contributor and have great bragging rights!

Maybe those bragging rights aren't as glorious as I'm making them sound, but sending in a patch will always be better than the alternative. And this really is a core tenet in the open source world, people helping people. Step up to the plate and be a contributor.

This also means that project owners need to be open to accepting help. I've had my fair share of dealings with developers who were unwilling to accept patches or other forms of assistance. Many open source projects have forked for this very reason.

So, here is my call to arms:

• Send a thank-you email to project owners whose software you use often
• When you want something changed, do it yourself, and send in a patch
• Accept patches from other people, and say "Thank You"

And this last one is for those big software companies that resist change:

• Don't be a bully, figure out how you can make money while being helpful