3 years ago

This week, we bring to you the tale of a lone open source developer by the name of Patrick Ahlbrecht who dared to stand up and declare to the world that, “no, ‘open source’ does not mean ‘includes free support'” and then, when many responded in various expected ways, again reiterated his (to some indefensible) position. The gist of Ahlbrecht’s first post on the topic was this: users of his open source software want to report “bug fixes,” for which he directs them to submit a support ticket, which they don’t want to do because that involves payment.

He goes on to explain that he writes open source software to solve his problems and that, should you desire to fix said problem, the source code is provided. Beyond that, many of these so-called “bug reports” turn out to be support requests with no expectation of payment.

He ends off with a conclusion that summarizes much of his entire argument: I’m not running a charity and I don’t want your “support”.