http://ayende.comAyende @ RahienCopyright (C) Ayende Rahien 2004 - 2021 (c) 202660He he, I can't seem to count one-two-three... http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment4http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment4Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:02:25 GMTthere are 3 types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't. http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment3http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment3Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:39:07 GMTDario - What's the 3rd type of OSS project? http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment2http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment2Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:05:02 GMTSome random thoughts from the trenches. As you noticed, there are three types of OSS projects: 1. company-funded, necessary for the company's business (or at least for getting visibility) or complimentary to it (e.g. they sell support) 2. individuals-led, done for fun or need. I think the most successful and big projects of type (2) eventually turn into type (1). If a project has thousands of users and requires constant active development, the management overhead starts to becoming too big or, alternatively, causes the project to grind to a halt. Attracting developers is another matter altogether. In my experience it's much harder to attract developers for projects that target end-users, while it's a lot easier when the product is a dev tool. On the other hand, it's hard to keep the feature set consistent and the goals defined when you have a lot of contributors (look at PHP6). I personally still have to learn how to manage my project, as there are a lot of things that are simply beyond my comprehension. So far, I learned to say no and to do a strong triage on feature requests, which is a start. http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment1http://ayende.com/4328/open-source-success-metrics#comment1Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:33:19 GMT