There are many reasons to love Open Source Software. It’s free (as in you pay nothing), it’s free (as in speech) and – perhaps my favourite reasons – it’s free (as in liberating).
By liberating, I mean that one isn’t tied down to the product roadmap and release schedule of the developers. If I find a bug, not only can I report it, I can fix it myself. If I can’t fix it myself, I can often find someone to fix it for me.
Imagine writing to MicroSoft and saying “Please can you make this change to Office – just for me?” If you ever got a response, it would be “No”. To be fair, you may also get the same reply from OpenOffice – the free replacement for MicroSoft Office – but because OpenOffice is Open Source, you can scratch the itch yourself.
If your itch-scratching is useful, others will benefit from it. If you are the only one benefiting from it, so what? You’re happier and more productive.
I use WordPress Mobile Pack. It creates a mobile version of this blog. It’s a very easy to use and very powerful plugin.
Unfortunately, like all software, it has bugs.
WPMP Bug
What you’re seeing in the screenshot is WPMP picking up a shortcode and, rather than ignoring it, rendering it as human readable text within the teaser. It’s ugly and confusing.
So, I raised a bug report and though “I bet I can fix this!”. Now, I’m not the world’s most talented programmer – but with my knowledge of PHP and WordPress plugin architecture, I was able to locate the problem, fix it, test it and deploy it within half an hour.
if(strpos($content, '[')!==false)
{
$content = "Read more";
}That’s it. Judicouly applied in the correct place made my problems disappear.
So, that’s why I love Open Source. It places my destiny in my hands.
I wonder how many users of OpenOffice have the knowledge to code a fix for something they want, compile it etc.
I bet hardly any.
You’re more likely to get a response from Microsoft because they have a financial incentive to fix bugs etc
Hi Oli,
Some will have the knowledge, some won’t. It’s the same as saying “Yes, but how many drivers can change a tire / fix a spark plug / replace the engine?” You wouldn’t want a car that could *only* be fixed by the manufacturer, would you?
I’ve tried reporting bugs to MS. They have millions of customers, so a single complaint tends to get lost in the mix. Open Source projects tend to be smaller. The people who work on them aren’t doing it (just) for a pay cheque – they’re more emotionally involved in the project and more likely to respond to constructive criticism.
Thanks for the comment,
T