“I remember the first time I suggested an improvement to a piece
of free, Open Source software. The testy response I got was, “Learn
to program and do it yourself.” This attitude was similar to that
displayed by what I call “academic writers,” whose fiction and
poetry is so obscure that no one reads it except other
academics.”
“But in the last few years, I’ve noticed a slow change in
attitude among the Open Source and free software developers I know
personally. More and more of them seem to be thinking in terms of
writing software that is useful to others, not just what they want
for themselves.“
“There is nothing wrong with this. Artists need audiences. So do
techies. Sure, it’s nice to write a “deep” piece of fiction that
only top-rung English professors will appreciate, but it’s also
nice to write something that a whole bunch of people will read and
understand, and perhaps even write you a letter or e-mail now and
then that says “Thanks. Nice work.”