this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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What's the point of writing software without users? Even if you're the only user, there needs to be a user, else it's a waste of time and effort. If you're just playing, studying, or whatever, why even publish and open source it? Users are a necessity for any software.
The other issues of growing FLOSS projects are a serious issue though.
Not to be argumentative, and I generally see your point :)
I do occasionally write software that will have zero users -- not even myself. Because it's fun to play with the code. "I wonder if I can prototype a openscad type thingy using Python set syntax..." Or whatever. It's the equivalent of sitting in front of a piano and creating song fragments to pass the time.
Naturally the benefit here is that you're developing skills, passing time in an entertaining fashion, and working the ole grey matter.
Software developers excel at creating ever-more-elaborate ways to heat up a CPU.
CC: @[email protected]
I've had similar experiences to what [email protected] describes. The problem comes more from the expectations that users have as consumers, which they bring with them to open source projects from general culture, not necessarily the existence of the users themselves. Some of those users for big open source projects are often corporations, to boot.