• Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    Many times, and it’s always an option for FOSS software. What do you consider “working?” Mass adoption, or satisfying needs and use-cases?

    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Many times what? Most forks die within a few months. Especially for big and well known projects. For example, io.js was a fork of NodeJs. Didn’t last long and was killed by NodeJs. All the Firefox forks are pretty much dead as well. Linux also had plenty of forks by people who disagreed with Linus and where are they now? I bet you don’t even remember their names.

      Forks don’t work unless the original project is dead.

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        This is incorrect. It’s true that most (in fact, I would say almost all) forks go nowhere but that doesn’t mean forking isn’t incredibly valuable. Even the example you cite, “original project is dead” isn’t just incidentally useful, it’s critical to open source. Other examples include:

        • project’s core team is part of a for profit org that is moving the project in a bad, profit motivated direction:
        • project’s leader suddenly and dramatically loses respect (maybe he killed his wife or something);
        • project’s leader dies without leaving a digital will regarding who controls the core repo;
        • project continues to direct effort into features while falling to address major security concerns;
        • project is healthy and useful in every way but there is an important use case not being addressed, and the fork would address it.

        Even if 99% of forks fail, that’s irrelevant because 99% of original projects fail in the same ways. Forks are critical to open source.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        So mass adoption is your answer, and I’d say you’re misguided. The purpose of FOSS isn’t to make a profit, but to satisfy uses and needs. If a few people have a need for a fork and use it, then it’s a success.

        You’re judging FOSS software by popularity, rather than use, as though it’s for profit.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Most new businesses fail as well. Maybe we shouldn’t be starting new businesses either? Or perhaps this more about people being unprepared and out of their depth whether it’s starting a new business or forking a code base. And not the individual actions themselves.

      • voidMainVoid@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        All the Firefox forks are pretty much dead as well.

        Firedragon and LibreWolf seem to be pretty healthy. I’ve been using LW daily for over a year and FD daily for 1-2 years before that.