Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Questions about Wine on Linux
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fargodwe

Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by fargodwe »

As is obvious from my posts and replies I am really an extreme novice at wine. I see so many experts here that I know I'm not of much use on the forum, but is there any way I might be able to help in the background? I would like to find some tiny way I might be able to handle.

Thanks in advance.
andrew.smart
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Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by andrew.smart »

There are many articles on open-source software philosophy.

For me, my involvement in open-source projects, including Wine, is almost always an "itch-to-scratch". That is there is a technical problem I'd like to solve, I evaluate possible solutions, and the optimal strategy is to use an existing work and often modify/fix it to suit my need.

Time and time again through life I've learned not to spend months/years of labor metaphorically laying bricks on top of someone else's covertly subversive Jenga game.

I also enjoy writing HOWTOs and such, but it is also selfish, because I'd never remember what I did even a month ago, so my prior writings are a blueprint for what to do if I face the problem again. Engagement with others is a bit of additional incentive into putting forth the effort in technical writing, and for putting in the behind-the-scenes work to ensure that writing is concise and correct. Including things like "RTFM", or little experiments.

I suppose this doesn't explicitly answer your question, but I thought to write my point-of-view.
fargodwe

Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by fargodwe »

So in other words not really.
andrew.smart
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Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by andrew.smart »

I think many people come to open source software projects with unrealistic expectations. Yes bug reports and use-examples are often helpful to those working on the software. However those making the reports often don't grasp the difference in support between a product they're paying for, and something they're not. They are likely to find themselves either outright ignored or pointed at a manual. Maybe they'll get lucky and a developer has the same "itch-to-scratch", or they make clear they're capable of itching that scratch on their own with a few nudges in the right direction.

I like to blame the Ubuntu forum and Ubuntu's business model for contributing to unrealistic expectations in users. You can read on any example of controversy surrounding Ubuntu and understand why they do what they do.

Here is an example article on open-source philosophy:
https://www.swlearning.com/economics/po ... ource.html

Now there are models to get funding to funding to further such work. Such as subscriptions to support services, see Red Hat for a very prominent example. Red Hat has many white papers on the subject. End users will trade capital for support and other benefits. With Wine there is CrossOver and other less prominent examples.
Last edited by andrew.smart on Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
fargodwe

Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by fargodwe »

Well, I was never looking to restart a systems admin and systems programming career from decades ago. I know I don't have the knowledge that most do here. I'm not looking to be some sort of God or work on bugs for software I written in languages I no longer no, nor on the code for a software product, open source or otherwise, that I don't know. I did work on open software products in the past, a couple of decades ago. In those days it was the challenge of learning everyone's coding styles and the trees in the forest. I just wanted to see if there was some way I could contribute.

To be honest, your answers are insulting.

Thanks.
andrew.smart
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Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by andrew.smart »

Well, I have nothing further to contribute to this discussion then, which I considered polite conversation. I'm sorry you found my perspectives insulting.
invisible kid
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Re: Can an extreme novice in someway help wine?

Post by invisible kid »

I know I've seen you help several people in the short time I've been hanging around. Helping people around here is a good vector to learn more about a certain area.
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