this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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I'm not complaining, but I didn't realize how much work it was. It makes me really respect the people who do it on a regular basis.

For example:

  • You know how to use your software, but other people don't. So you need to write documentation.
  • You can just modify the source files, but it's impractical for everyone to do that. So you need to add a config file.
  • You can just drag the output files into place, but that's impractical for everyone to do. So you need to package it.
  • You trust yourself, but distro maintainers rightfully don't. So you need to package your source code and configure the package to compile it.
  • You will abide by your idea of how the software should be used, but other people might not. So you need to pick a license.

Sometimes I think there must be an easier way, but I can't think of any. I guess it probably gets easier with experience.

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[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have so many projects that could be cool for someone else, but I just can't be bothered making them usable for others.

[–] Neil@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'll be honest, I'd rather you just toss them on github with a short description and at the end put "fuck you, figure it out."

That would at least give people like me a chance to benefit from your hard work. I promise I wouldn't complain and the people that do complain aren't worth responding to.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Even that's mostly not of any value. Check this out: I built a keyboard attachment for phones (https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry).

I got tons of responses of people who said, they would really like to buy it.

Well, I'm not selling them, but I put really detailed instructions up on how to build it.

Afaik, so far nobody even tried to make one, even though I had at least 100 replies from people who said they would buy one.