Reality check

[Jeremy White]

> BTW, you might be able to clarify how it can happen that Crossover
> (derived from LGPL-ed WINE, if I understand it correctly) doesn't have
> one of these bugs, but WINE does? I used to think that LGPL requires
> availability of modified source, and therefore WINE developers should be
> able to 'backport'
> bugfixes from CrossOver to WINE, shouldn't they?

John,

This page:
  http://www.codeweavers.com/products/source/
takes two clicks to get to from our home page, and
has all of our public source code, including Wine.

We also have a company policy that prefers that all the work
we do on Wine is publicly submitted to wine-devel
first, before we commit to our own tree.

I think Dan answered your email quite well, but I wanted
to add an additional thought for others reading:

  Money is not the only answer.  It helps, and
it tends to be the only choice for pushy and rude people.

  But I have found that, on many open source projects,
it is possible to get help from a developer.  It
takes an enormous amount of effort, a great deal
of politeness, and some luck.  But most open source
developers are actually quite giving.  The keys, imho, are:


  1.  Do your homework

      Read the FAQs.  Read the ML archives.
      Actually try the various alternatives suggested.
      Research the technical issues at hand.
      Learn enough so you know what you're talking about.

      Do that first.


  2.  Make it easy

      Developers find a nice bug report, with easy
      to follow instructions to reproduce, and nice
      easy access to the software to be quite nice.


  3.  Ask nicely

      If you want someone to work for you, for free,
      you have to recognize that they are giving you
      a gift - a gift of their time.

      If you can't hold that in mind when you ask,
      then you're not asking right.

Cheers,

Jeremy