import/export bounty

Ian Smith-Heisters i at idiosyncra.tc
Tue Sep 23 11:55:15 EDT 2008


On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 7:05 AM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
> "Ian Smith-Heisters" <i at idiosyncra.tc> writes:
>
>> That's really unfortunate.
>>
>> Is there a possibility that if we got enough bounties together that
>> there could be a contract for a third party in this?
>
> I find it unlikely you could raise enough capital to afford
> a developer.  The GnuCash tip jar has only raised a few thousand
> dollars over the course of a few years.

I (unfortunately) now find myself with a vested interest in GnuCash's
survival. I imagine there are at least a few others in the same boat.

Perhaps we can't afford the cost of getting an outside developer up to
speed on the project and then getting some work done. It'd be better
anyway if the money was going towards someone that's already part of
the community, and is likely to stay so. Is there anyone in the
community that's a competent developer but lacks familiarity with the
codebase and is willing to cut us a deal since he/she will be learning
on the job? Would any of the senior developers be willing to give such
a person the support they need?

>
>> I'd be willing to donate *something* towards getting GnuCash out of
>> the sort of rut you describe. I bet we could get other users to do the
>> same. Perhaps a pledge drive is in order?
>
> There's the tip jar, but that's just general funds that tend to get
> used for things like hardware upgrades and things.

I'm thinking more: "hey users. GnuCash is in a rut. Let's get together
and pull it out, or else you'll be transferring your accounts *back*
into Quicken this time next year." Ok, so maybe threats of doom and
gloom aren't such a good tactic ;) but you get the point: a concerted
community effort. GnuCash *is* a unique piece of software, and the
only of its kind AFAIK (between OSS and its feature-set), and I bet we
can get some support behind that.

>
>> If the shortage of developer cycles is really as intractable as you
>> make it sound, I fear this project will eventually become stagnant and
>> obsolete. Should I be looking at investing my time and money into
>> another OSS accounting software project that has more steam ;) ?
>
> I don't think it's intractable.  Developer cycles seem to ebb and
> flow over time.  Sometimes we get a bunch of really active developers.
> Other times we have fewer.  Maybe we'll hit a month or two every few
> years when effectively nobody is working on the code, but that's very
> rare.

That sounds to me like "the project will eventually become stagnant
and obsolete." I think your model worked fine five years ago, but
these days, IMHO, an OSS project won't survive long unless it's
growing at a modest rate. You end up with an infinite loop of losing
users and developers. Of course, your judgment is better than mine as
to whether GnuCash is on the bad or good side of that "modest rate",
but it seems bad from my perspective.

>
> The problem is that we have tons of great ideas (and tons of bugs
> already reported) but not enough cycles to implement them all.  So
> we don't need new ideas, we need people to do them.

Agreed. So let's put our money and time into getting new people.
Unfortunately, the money (as often) is linked to specific "great
ideas," so those may need to be prioritized somewhat.

>
> As this is the developer list, I'll state my standard reply:
> Patches Welcome.   :-D

Well, yes, I could do that. I just figured it would be more efficient
to pay someone that's more familiar with the codebase than myself. I'm
not Mr. Moneybags, I'm a working freelance developer. As such, my time
is worth a very specific amount, and I know that my time would be
better spent in my domain of expertise and hiring someone whose domain
is GnuCash.

Now I find that hiring a GnuCash specialist is impossible, so I'm
willing to work with someone more familiar than myself, but not a
specialist per se. I'm also willing to put my time into getting more
funds together, but I won't do it without the support of the core
team.

-Ian

>
>>>> --Ian
>
> -derek
>
> --
>       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
>


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