> Heck, how realistic is this for the average programmer? Even if you're the type of macho, gung-ho programmer who can master an alien code base just to get some small pet feature or bugfix in -- do you honestly have the kind of time it would take to do that?
Actually, I have submitted lots of (mostly small and inconsequential) bugs and minor features over the years, to projects such as the Linux Kernel, Tcl, Erlang, Ruby, Rails, Apache, and probably lots of others I'm forgetting right now. I actually enjoy it quite a bit, come to think of it - there's something cool about diving in and studying something new and different, and a thrill that comes with nailing the bug. Sometimes, the knowledge required to actually fix it is too much, and you have to settle for sending in a good bug report, but in other cases it's very much possible to hack up quick, useful things despite not knowing much about the system in question. And, no, I'm not really that great a programmer... I'd consider myself fairly average.
I suppose where he might be right is in more end-user oriented things. All the things I've listed above are programmer tools or closely related, where this sort of behavior is the norm (a cynic might note that Jeff comes from the world of Microsoft, where it is not). Things are a little bit more complicated when it comes to things that are not by/for programmers. I should write more on my own site about the economics of open source...
My conclusion is that he doesn't really have a lot of knowledge of open source business and economics, although to be charitable, it's certainly a more complex field than proprietary software.
Actually, I have submitted lots of (mostly small and inconsequential) bugs and minor features over the years
Agreed. I think most programmers do this. I know I do, and I know all of my friends do. It is not hard at all -- first you check out the repository, then you make your change, then you send the patch. Making a change to someone else's software is just like making a change to yours, except they might indent a different number of spaces, or something.
Actually, I have submitted lots of (mostly small and inconsequential) bugs and minor features over the years, to projects such as the Linux Kernel, Tcl, Erlang, Ruby, Rails, Apache, and probably lots of others I'm forgetting right now. I actually enjoy it quite a bit, come to think of it - there's something cool about diving in and studying something new and different, and a thrill that comes with nailing the bug. Sometimes, the knowledge required to actually fix it is too much, and you have to settle for sending in a good bug report, but in other cases it's very much possible to hack up quick, useful things despite not knowing much about the system in question. And, no, I'm not really that great a programmer... I'd consider myself fairly average.
I suppose where he might be right is in more end-user oriented things. All the things I've listed above are programmer tools or closely related, where this sort of behavior is the norm (a cynic might note that Jeff comes from the world of Microsoft, where it is not). Things are a little bit more complicated when it comes to things that are not by/for programmers. I should write more on my own site about the economics of open source...