[lucb1e]

To add to this, when reporting bugs (security or otherwise) I regularly feel like it's not worth my time to fix them because it takes me 2 hours to try to get the code to compile in the first place, sometimes you need to sign legalese to be allowed to help them, then I still need to figure out what the project's structure is and decide on how to best fix it (perhaps discuss it with the maintainer(s)), and then I haven't even started writing code yet. Meanwhile, I know that when maintaining my own software, it takes me 30 seconds to open up the project and I'll be literally 5 times faster working on a fix with all the context that is in my head and usually don't need to consult with others.

It's like if you kept trying to fix other people's cars when you know only the principles of a combustion engine, own an electric motorcycle yourself, and those cars would be very different from each other: I'd much rather someone does it who actually knows what they're doing, it would save all parties a lot of trouble. Diagnosing problems very specifically should already help them a lot of the time they would otherwise have to put in.

[strbean]

> it takes me 2 hours to try to get the code to compile in the first place

And then the tests won't pass on master!

[lucb1e]

Tell me about it. Instructions working on the first attempt on a standard Debian system is quite rare. Bigger projects with more contributors put more work into making it work, but also have more complex processes, so the result is that it's almost always trouble. Or they're simply more complex than necessary: no I don't want to download 12GB of IDE, SDK/compiler, emulated operating systems, and custom versions of dependencies installed system-wide in order to compile and run this project, I just want the code and dependencies in the local folder and apt install a compiler so I can simply build the apk and adb install it on my phone without screwing up my system or having to setup a new container/VM for the purpose.