Happiness in Open Source

Transcript

1. 1.

   Happiness in
   Open Source Armin Ronacher

2. 2.

   Me • Armin Ronacher (@mitsuhiko) • Open Source Person •

   Flask, Werkzeug, Jinja, Lektor etc. • Now working on Sentry
3. 3.

   Interrupt Me

4. 4.

   Getting There

5. 5.

   The Trigger • Bought a book by Gregor Lingl: “Python

   für Kids” • Stumbled upon the German Python Forum • The former administrator recommends Linux and with it Ubuntu
6. 6.

   Back in Time • 2004: Ubuntu was released • the

   first version of Linux I could actually run on my desktop. • Little bit of PHP Hacking • --> ubuntuusers.de
7. 7.

   Going with the Flow • Ubuntu exploded. You could actually

   see yourself making a “difference” • got a contribution into ubuntu directly: a simple wallpaper and some translations
8. 8.

   Growing Big • Founding of the German ubuntu society •

   Scaling website to multiple servers • The politics start
9. 9.

   Why did it happen?

10. 10.

    Hermagor • My Hometown • Population: 1.500 • People with

    an interest in technology: few • Enter the internet
11. 11.

    Next Step: Programming • Diving into Python development • learning

    real programming • Getting in contact with other Python developers (Georg Brandl)
12. 12.

    Learning • Jinja -> Templates without Django • Copy pasting

    code over, trying to improve it • Learning on IRC from a guy who actually knows parsers.
13. 13.

    Release • First implementation was crap • Did not stop

    me from publishing it though • What is a license?
14. 14.

    Open? • You can do whatever you want with it.

    • Wrong
15. 15.

    Stumbling Blocks • Jacob Kaplan–Moss sends me a mail that

    some of the leftover code from Django in Jinja is missing the License declaration. • Learning on Licensing
16. 16.

    Communication & Culture

17. 17.

    People • There is a difference between IRC and RL

    • Textual communication can be a problem • IRC/mail does not transfer emotions • Different cultures
18. 18.

    Licensing • Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, bad,

    bad, bad, bad, AAAAaaaargh • And you can seriously hurt yourself
19. 19.

    Goals • Often you don't want what others do •

    And that might not even be obvious • Learn to say no
20. 20.

    Why do it?

21. 21.

    Why Open Source? • Fun • Rewarding • Networking for

    shy people • A common ground
22. 22.

    Learning • I learn by failing and communicating with others.

    • If it wasn't for the open source community I wouldn't be able to find people to talk to. • Cross language / border
23. 23.

    It pays off • Learning new things • Getting introduced

    to interesting people • The thrill of working together • Happiness when you see your stuff being used
24. 24.

    Staying Motivated

25. 25.

    Use It • You can only build things you use

    yourself • Let other's chime in when you stop using it • Stop using it if you find something better / you need to use something else
26. 26.

    Be More Boring • Sometimes it's important to stay boring

    • Don't get carried away by the latest trends • Don't overstep the original goals
27. 27.

    Licensing

28. 28.

    BSD or GTFO • All popular Python modules are MIT/BSD

    licensed with the occasional LGPL one • Commercial modules are very, very rare • GPL libraries ends up being mostly unused • Why?
29. 29.

    Forced Contributions • “99% of useful code contributions come from

    people who are motivated to participate in the project regardless of what the license tells them they have to do.” — Steve Streeting
30. 30.

    Money: Case Studies

31. 31.

    Making Money • Selling the software? • Libraries vs Applications

    • Selling support? • BSD/MIT/zlib
32. 32.

    Flask • Impossible to sell • However an amazing way

    to bootstrap a career • More than possible to sell consulting
33. 33.

    Sentry • Open Source not Open Core • Puts us

    where others cannot be • Bootstrapped
34. 34.

    Thank You

35. 35.

    Contact • Armin Ronacher (@mitsuhiko) • http://lucumr.pocoo.org/ • http://www.getsentry.com/