DevConf.cz
I just got back from an amazing trip out to the Czech Republic! DevConf.cz was hosted in Brno at the FIT (as it has been for 10 years) and was packed to capacity with around 1500 developers, users, and admins presenting on and learning about the latest in open source software.
It was awesome to rub elbows and chat with some of the amazing developers that write code for things like selinux or FreeIPA.
While there, I participated in a study on the usability of OpenSSL. This was a pretty cool study that showed that while OpenSSL has a full feature set, it can be complicated and confusing when trying to use it. This got me thinking about open source usability...
A lot of open source software ends up feature rich but not easy to use, even for your advanced users. How can we (the users of the software) help with this? I think we have a couple of options:
1. Bitching about it. Not a viable option.
2. Reaching out the developer community and contribute.
3. Create overlay tools that help solve the problem your trying to fix. (I'm thinking a wrapper program/script or an Ansible playbook here)
In my opinion, lack of usability can be a huge barrier to adoption for any project or product. By providing an outside perspective you can help improve the software.
GitHub has a nice guide on how to get started contributing to open source.
Cheers,
Derek
It was awesome to rub elbows and chat with some of the amazing developers that write code for things like selinux or FreeIPA.
While there, I participated in a study on the usability of OpenSSL. This was a pretty cool study that showed that while OpenSSL has a full feature set, it can be complicated and confusing when trying to use it. This got me thinking about open source usability...
A lot of open source software ends up feature rich but not easy to use, even for your advanced users. How can we (the users of the software) help with this? I think we have a couple of options:
1. Bitching about it. Not a viable option.
2. Reaching out the developer community and contribute.
3. Create overlay tools that help solve the problem your trying to fix. (I'm thinking a wrapper program/script or an Ansible playbook here)
In my opinion, lack of usability can be a huge barrier to adoption for any project or product. By providing an outside perspective you can help improve the software.
GitHub has a nice guide on how to get started contributing to open source.
Cheers,
Derek
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