I'm a computer science graduate and I'm looking for a job. If someone paid me, I'd drop my current (boring IT) job and start writing code for a fun Free Software/Open Source project like VDrift. Getting paid for writing Free Software/Open Source software is great because I would be writing non-proprietary software that benefits the society and also not wasting my time talents and education.
thelusiv Wrote:The best part of developing an open source game is being able to go in whatever direction you like, have no deadlines, etc. That gives the developers freedom to experiment with different methods and structures of development.
This also dooms the project to never get completed.
plouj Wrote:This also dooms the project to never get completed.
it's the journey that matters not the destination. some day you will hopefully come to understand that and then appreciate things a lot more.
--alex--
plouj Wrote:This also dooms the project to never get completed.
That's what's great about open source software... there's no "okay, here's kernel 2.6, we're done now." Instead, it's constant improvement.
But I sort of know what you mean, there's nothing that forces you to do work when you don't feel like it. Of course, that's a big plus in my book. It's why it's a fun hobby instead of a job.
I'm torn. I can go with what all of you are saying, you all have great points. I think that if it is possible and if you want to do it, do it.
Here's the thing about opensource. Back in the 90's I wrote a program. I never, by any means, finished....er... "finished" the program, but it was a very usable program. In fact, I still run it, there are a number of other people still running it, and there's a project page for it so people can find it, download it, request changes, etc. - now, I have ideas about it, but I haven't really been arsed to do anything about them. If someone else asked me for a revision though, I'd gladly do it. My point is, if the author is still willing to mess with the software, great, if he's not, and it's opensource, anyone can mess with it, although it may not be "official", it's still there.
Unfortunately, very few people get paid to work on open source projects. Even fewer (open source) projects make any money. Most open source developers that have had a job programming would typically rather keep the project informal than have someone paying for it, in my experience.
As far as incomplete projects - see my comments above. It's incomplete. But it works. 7500 lines of C, stable enough to run for months on end, no memory leaks, bug free if you stick to certain limitations set forth in the config file - but it's incomplete. Does it matter? The only person who knows it isn't complete, is me.