Mike McQuaid — How to Not Fail at Using Open-Source Software in Your Organisation (Turing Fest 2018)

Almost every company today uses open source software to do business (whether they know it or not). Almost every company isn’t using open source software as effectively as they could. Learn from GitHub’s Mike McQuaid about how to use open source software in your organisation without succumbing to the most common of pitfalls.

Transcript

1. How To Not Fail At Using Open Source Software In Your Organisation @MikeMcQuaid
2. Mike McQuaid Maintainer (2009-18) twitter.com/MikeMcQuaid
3. Mike McQuaid Senior Engineer (2013-18) github.com/MikeMcQuaid
4. why OSS how to fail how to win
5. why OSS
6. “proprietary software costs and OSS is !” why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
7. proprietary software purchase costs: support costs: training costs: why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
8. open source software purchase costs: support costs: training costs: why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
9. “Desktop Linux is only free if your time is worth nothing” someone on the internet (not me ) why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
10. “proprietary software costs and OSS is !” ' why OSS
 
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11. “the community will help us and all our problems for !” why OSS
 
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12. why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
13. why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid https://guides.rubyonrails.org/contributing_to_ruby_on_rails.html
14. why OSS
 
 @MikeMcQuaid “Then, don't get your hopes up! Unless you have a “Code Red, Mission Critical, the World is Coming to an End” kind of bug, you're creating this issue report in the hope that others with the same problem will be able to collaborate with you on solving it. Do not expect that the issue report will automatically see any activity or that others will jump to fix it. Creating an issue like this is mostly to help yourself start on the path of fixing the problem and for others to confirm it with an “I’m having this problem too” comment.” Ruby on Rails Guides
15. “the community will help us and all our problems for !” why OSS
 
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16. “everyone else uses open source software now” why OSS
 
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17. who uses open source: “Linux on the desktop” people ☁ “Linux on the server” people small companies who like open source big companies who like open source Microsoft everyone why OSS
 
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18. what open source everyone uses: servers, services (Linux, Apache) 0 server applications (WordPress) developer libraries (SQLite) developer tools (Git) everything (.NET, VS Code) why OSS
 
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19. “everyone else uses open source software now” 3 why OSS
 
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20. how to fail
21. “let’s just and edit this for now” how to fail
 
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22. “let’s just and edit this forever” how to fail
 
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23. “security updates might cause ” how to fail
 
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24. “getting hacked might cause ” how to fail
 
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25. how many libraries you use are right now? how to fail
 
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26. “this issue is stopping me doing my 0!” how to fail
 
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27. how to fail
 
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28. how to fail
 
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29. how to fail
 
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30. “let’s open source this so people will make it 3 for !” how to fail
 
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31. “let’s open source this so people will make it 3 if it’s already 3 and we help them!” how to fail
 
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32. how to fail
 
 @MikeMcQuaid users contributors maintainers 6
33. how to fail
 
 @MikeMcQuaid >1,000,000 users >7,000 contributors 10 maintainers 6
34. how to win
35. everything should be upstream how to win
 
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36. everything should be someone else’s problem how to win
 
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37. forking without failing: fork : test submit pull request address comments, get merged update to latest version (often) how to win
 
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38. help others help you by helping yourself ☝ how to win
 
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39. how to help yourself: read the documentation minimally reproducible issues look at the code try to fix the code submit the fix as a pull request how to win
 
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40. how to get a good reaction: ☀ have reasonable expectations ⏱ prioritise maintainers’ time defer to maintainers help others where you can how to win
 
 @MikeMcQuaid
41. how to win
 
 @MikeMcQuaid https://opensource.guide
42. why use OSS ' it doesn’t cost money others will help for free 3 everyone does it now @MikeMcQuaid
43. how to fail at OSS old forks and libraries be whiny and entitled expecting free labour @MikeMcQuaid
44. how to win at OSS upstream everything help yourself ☀ be a nice, kind human @MikeMcQuaid
45. Mike McQuaid mike@mikemcquaid.com twitter.com/MikeMcQuaid