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Happiness in Open Source Armin Ronacher

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Me • Armin Ronacher (@mitsuhiko) • Open Source Person • Flask, Werkzeug, Jinja, Lektor etc. • Now working on Sentry

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Interrupt Me

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Getting There

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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

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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

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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

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Growing Big • Founding of the German ubuntu society • Scaling website to multiple servers • The politics start

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Why did it happen?

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Hermagor • My Hometown • Population: 1.500 • People with an interest in technology: few • Enter the internet

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Next Step: Programming • Diving into Python development • learning real programming • Getting in contact with other Python developers (Georg Brandl)

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Learning • Jinja -> Templates without Django • Copy pasting code over, trying to improve it • Learning on IRC from a guy who actually knows parsers.

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Release • First implementation was crap • Did not stop me from publishing it though • What is a license?

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

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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

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Communication & Culture

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People • There is a difference between IRC and RL • Textual communication can be a problem • IRC/mail does not transfer emotions • Different cultures

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Licensing • Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, bad, bad, bad, bad, AAAAaaaargh • And you can seriously hurt yourself

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Goals • Often you don't want what others do • And that might not even be obvious • Learn to say no

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Why do it?

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Why Open Source? • Fun • Rewarding • Networking for shy people • A common ground

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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

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It pays off • Learning new things • Getting introduced to interesting people • The thrill of working together • Happiness when you see your stuff being used

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Staying Motivated

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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

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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

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Licensing

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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?

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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

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Money: Case Studies

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Making Money • Selling the software? • Libraries vs Applications • Selling support? • BSD/MIT/zlib

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Flask • Impossible to sell • However an amazing way to bootstrap a career • More than possible to sell consulting

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Sentry • Open Source not Open Core • Puts us where others cannot be • Bootstrapped

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Thank You

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