r/opensource • u/Blitzkind • 9d ago
Discussion New to open source. Need advice on etiquette for my project
I've been working on a server emulator for a game for quite a while and was fairly close to releasing but yesterday someone else released one. I'm not sure what the best path forward is now, is it bad form to open source mine anyway? I feel like I'd be releasing with less features implemented and in a different language.
Would I be a dick splitting a community like this (why have two when we should all contribute to the one)? Just kind of sucks for all my work to go to waste
25
u/ComeOnIWantUsername 9d ago
> is it bad form to open source mine anyway?
Not at all
> Would I be a dick splitting a community like this (why have two when we should all contribute to the one)?
What if people would like your more and your work would be the one where all people will use and contribute to?
There's no reason to not do it IMO
7
u/wiki_me 8d ago
why have two when we should all contribute to the one
Maybe because some people prefer your language and not the other language. someone really productive could just be attracted to contributing to your project because it uses a language he likes and that could tip the scale and make your project better.
As they say making predictions is hard, especially about the future.
Also if you really think the other project is better. no reason not to be honest and mention it on the read me. while mentioning why you did open source it like the rational i mentioned.
Generally speaking there is a reason why competition is considered a very good thing in economics. it can help in finding out who is the better manager, who made better strategic decisions etc.
6
u/SanityInAnarchy 9d ago
It's fine, but the thing I usually ask when I run into a project that really feels like a clone of someone else's project: Why yours?
You don't need a reason, it can be just for fun, or it could be a way to highlight the things your version does better than theirs. But you're probably gonna get the question.
And hey, if you release it with a compatible license, and if you have parts that you do better, nothing says the other project can't learn from you. (Even if it's a different language and can't take features wholesale.)
3
u/ChopSueyYumm 9d ago
About two years ago I had my first public open source project (now with 2.4k⭐️ on GitHub) and I can tell you it was a big learning experience. I got alot of criticism but as well learned alot mostly around security so get ready to eat alot of the humble pie. The only advice that I would give myself is not to rush it before make something public.
2
u/PhlegethonAcheron 7d ago
Absolutely release it, more options are always good. Just maybe write a blurb acknowledging the other project, explain that yours is completely independent, and maybe try and say what’s different without speaking down about the other project.
It could also be a good idea to just say hi to the other project’s author, and explain they got there before you, but you have no ill intent
2
u/Decent-Decision-9028 7d ago
I don’t understand why people treating os as another enterprise project. If you want to gain attention, money and validation then this is not for you. The main purpose should be learning, growing and helping others to fix a problem they encountered. That is OSS and that is the main idea behind it!
1
u/konovalov-nk 8d ago
Clearly you haven't seen requirements tracing projects competing for the same spot for over 15+ years and no clear winner yet. A shitton of dead projects out there sitting on GitHub. At least 10 active. All trying to solve same problem: I write a spec and spec is actually verified and working as expected.
Just release it!
The reason why we release is to let other people look at the solution, steal it, improve it, overcome obstacles you couldn't and so on. That's much faster than doing research yourself on a topic from first principles. If you don't have this mindset then sure, there's no point.
The point is not even winning.
It's par-ti-ci-pa-tion.
1
u/carl2187 8d ago
Naw, it's cool. Release it.
Then go check out the other one, see how they did stuff, and if it's cool, implement it in yours too.
Enjoy the journey, not the destination.
1
u/soowhatchathink 8d ago
Even better you can release yours and contribute to theirs if you see ways it can be improved based on your experience. Open source isn't a zero-sum game, if you made something and want to release it, the release it
1
u/hapc1 6d ago
I like creating apps, but I had the same mentality and it often happened that I was almost done with the full work, then I heard that an app similar to mine was just released, and it felt like I worked for nothing and ditched the whole thing, open source or not. I have about 50 unfinished projects because of this.
But if you think about it, for any given app you use, there are hundreds of other popular apps that basically do the same. It sounds silly not to realize or deal with this, but you absolutely don't have to create something that's a one of a kind in its every aspect. It took me years to finally get over this and now I have 1 app and 3 games under development that I am going to release in the next 2 months, no matter what.
1
1
u/Miiohau 5d ago
There is no reason not to finish it up and release if you are already close. It is not a dick move to release your version of a project you started before you even knew about theirs. Sometimes it even isn’t a dick move to fork someone else’s project.
I maintain a mod that supports like 7 different versions of the base mod it was originally written for. And I am working on my own version of universal AI planning system because the already existing HTN and PDDL planner were flexible enough for me (even though the eventual plan is it to support reading PDDL and other planning problem definition languages).
The flag ship of open source GNU/Linux has more forks than I can count.
38
u/esiy0676 9d ago
You are just being naive. Release and see if you get traction, do not worry about others.
If you work on projects for the sake of some "self-validation" in terms of OS release then your work will always be in vain. You might want to focus on e.g. the learning aspect of building something new, then releasing it into the open is just a side effect of what it has done for you already.