"Open Source nerds don’t have the discipline to write documentation because it’s no fun. Writing new code is fun." - as I discovered when trying to learn how to use the last 2 open source frameworks I came across.
This would be a more compelling complaint if proprietary software generally came with detailed, clearly written documentation. Which most of the time it doesn't.
In the worst cases, the proprietary software vendor expects you to pay to get access to the kind of not-end-user-oriented-but-still-useful documentation (like an API reference) that open source projects publish for free.
In other words, it's not that open source software tends to be poorly documented, it's that software tends to be poorly documented. At least with open source software you can go and look and the source code to figure out the stuff the docs leave out.
My complaint with a lot of proprietary documentation is that although it exists, it's often almost information free...
E.g., for a function called "void ReverseDirection (x)", the doc says "Reverses the direction of X", without any mention of context, possible issues, subtleties, ... just a mechanical statement of the obvious.
To expand on the 2nd type of open source software - corporations love FOSS because they get a huge amount of value at little cost. FOSS coders undervalue themselves and should get paid what they are worth.
Don't believe that? Ask Apache how many companies that rely on httpd for their entire revenue stream have contributed anything at all.
> FOSS coders undervalue themselves and should get paid what they are worth.
I do open-source coding with a completely non-related day job to keep proficient and because I like building software. What should I bill per hour? Who should I bill it to?
As far as I'm concerned I'm already making value from my code, I certainly don't need others swooping in to tell me what I should and shouldn't charge for it.
Remember Ruby back in 2006? (Or just Rails if you’re a cool dork) oh you couldn’t turn a corner without some douche-canoe evangelizing the wonders of this horrible little fad framework and how it was going to revolutionize delivering software and services to the web and like the Segway Scooter of computer science… BAM in 2011 no one uses it.
Nobody was using Ruby in 2011? Really? Really?
It's not even worth going through and picking out all the mistakes, really. I feel bad about even having taken the time to pick out the one above. It's like beating up the fat kid on the playground.
