[TheChaplain]

Just want to say that the time you spend reporting bugs on Linux environments is not in vain but much appreciated. I try to give back to the community and spend time fixing issues people have for the Linux desktops MATE and XFCE, at least a few times a year.

[dEnigma]

Giving back to the Linux ecosystem is definitely much more enjoyable than reporting Windows bugs. I'm active building packages and reporting/fixing bugs for Solus, as well as contributing some code to a variety of projects from time to time. It's more of a relaxing pastime for me than a chore. Also you mostly are in direct contact with the actual developers of the apps/libraries, which is a huge improvement.

[phkahler]

>> It's more of a relaxing pastime for me than a chore.

This is how a lot of software should be developed. Time to reflect and think about how to make things better. Not some weird money and authority driven scheme.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Really? FOSS software very often has the same problems in this regard that Microsoft does. Almost every time I have an issue with something I will find it already in their bug tracker, several years old, at best ignored and at worst closed by the stale bot.

In my estimation it is roughly the same as it is with Microsoft: if it doesn't directly affect a developer's workflow it will not be fixed and they're annoyed you even brought it up.

The big difference of course being that Microsoft expects you to pay money for this treatment.

[zaat]

That's depends on the specific software and maintainer. I see stuff in the GNOME tracker that boil my blood, I become angry even when now, thinking about it.

On the other hand, I had filled bug regarding some encryption functionality and was given useful and respectful comments that helped me with the non-bug but user error issue. I also reported on some power management feature I was missing and got it implemented in merely few weeks. This two are from fedora maintainers, but I also had some unknown dev on github to implement additional auth options in his product per my request, got this delivered on very short time and could proceed to do POC of the product for a customer.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

> That's depends on the specific software and maintainer.

Something so obvious I didn't feel the need to explicitly state it in my post. I guess I should know better.

[smoldesu]

It's hardly a salient detail when we're talking about... checks notes thousands of distinct software projects with their own unique leadership models. Much like the parent said, there are indeed pretty notoriously ignorant dev teams out there like the GNOME and Flatpak maintainers, but they're more the exception than the rule. By and large, I'd argue that the Linux community gets stuff right more often than Microsoft does these days, and probably Apple too (though their software these days isn't exactly a high bar).

[zaat]

The point might be obvious but I wanted to highlight some non-obvious experiences I had.

[Abishek_Muthian]

> I see stuff in the GNOME tracker that boil my blood, I become angry even when now, thinking about it.

Here's one affecting me recently, When the app on another workspace is closed and the workspace is switched, it crashes GNOME shell. I found that there have been several bug reports raised regarding issue[1].

The oldest related bug report was opened in upstream Ubuntu launchpad a year ago. Granted this is relatively small period compared to some other bugs.

Yet this bug affects me regularly(I guess it has to do with trackpad) and no workspace until it can be fixed. So I'm planning to create a debugging setup to contribute towards resolving this issue.

[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/4801

[katbyte]

You can’t paint all projects with the same brush as how they are run can vary widely from one to another.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

I'm sorry, but where did I say 'all FOSS software'?

[nitrogen]

Are there any Linux desktops that don't require you to sign up for an account to submit a crash report, and keep crash report details private until triage? That has kept me from reporting reproducible bugs in KDE apps before.

[teddyh]

Tip: Use your distribution’s bug reporting system, not the upstream’s. For example, in Debian, simply run the “reportbug” command. It is then the maintainer’s job to, if appropriate, forward the bug upstream.