Running an open source project - what is it really like

By: Jussi Pakkanen

1. Maintaining an open source project, what’s it really like? Jussi Pakkanen Meson build system [email protected]

2. https://mesonbuild.com

3. Meson in a nutshell Configures, builds, tests, installs source code Also runs tooling, documentation generators etc Supports C, C++, Fortran, Rust, Python, Objective C, Swift, Cuda etc Linux, Windows, macOS, Cygwin, Solaris etc Deal with all the gnarly bits of platform support, so end users don’t have to

4. In an even smaller nutshell “ Here are my source files, make stuff happen.”

5. Used by Systemd Mesa 3D Gstreamer + Gnome Qemu Numpy, Scipy Many others

6. What about time?

7. Effort needed for “good enough” Approximately one person working full time for a year.

8. Does it get better? Merely replying to all bug email for Meson would be a full time job.

9. Many hats to wear Coding, debugging Reviewing code, training reviewers Writing docs “ Customer” support Advocating Planning ahead

10. All that is time you are not spending together with your loved ones. (probably)

11. What about money?

12. Expenses Mostly travel related: food, hotels, airplane tickets etc

13. Over the lifetime of the project: At least 30 000 €

14. Lost revenue What if you had just worked normally for the same amount of time?

15. Fermi estimation 10 years 20 days per month 4 hours per day

16. Typical consulting fee 100€ / h

17. Thus 10 * 12 * 20 * 4 * 100 = 960 000 €

18. If we count all contributors 10M €? 100M €?

19. Income Google Open Source reward (a few hundred €) GStreamer devs bought me dinner once Some beers

20. An open source project is basically a startup without even the possibility of an exit.

21. So everything is terrible?

22. There are things money can rarely buy.

23. Get to work on cool stuff Get to define project scope and processes Solve fun problems from the ground up Fix what is broken for you Potentially work on globally relevant things Do not have to live in Silicon Valley or equivalent

24. Freedom from bean counters “ Make it worse, so we can charge for bug fixes!”

25. The joy of productivity If you need a new computer, you can just go to the store, buy one and automatically get admin rights. It is not a months long battle against IT support outsourced to a different country.

26. Professional cooperative design Planning how testing is defined in Meson was a difficult problem Multiple opposing goals Took months with many design iterations Eventually finished The end result was better than any individual proposal

27. In absentia Table flipping, name calling or trying to silence other people by shouting Trying to force the issue via management chain “ My bonuses depend on my solution getting accepted so it has to go in NOW! No, I don’t care how crap it is.” Any sketchy behaviour, really

28. If you have never experienced “grown up” cooperative problem solving, you really should. It is the essence of why many people went into software development in the first place.

29. “ Could you reduce all that into a overly simplified, easy to misinterpret slide?”

30. Corporate world Open source Get money Personally rewarding Crossovers are possible but rare.