Newbie's impressions

[David Shere <ds...@steelerubber.com>]

Someone suggested that there are no newbies in this forum.  Hi.  Newbie 
here.  Started working with OFBiz about six months ago.  I don't post 
much, because:

1.  We have a handful of paid consultants we use when we have technical 
problems we can't figure out.
2.  My average propensity to try to solve a problem by myself seems to 
be higher than most other people's.
3.  Most of the time by I find a problem, someone else has found it too.
4.  I sometimes feel that my understanding of OFBiz is not yet high 
enough for my technical comments to be useful.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the community consists 
of the following:

1.  Download and use of the software is free of charge, not free of work.
2.  Software is not guaranteed to work, but it does work very well most 
of the time.
3.  Use and modify at your own risk
4.  If you don't like something, submit a fix.  If you can't bring 
yourself to do that, pay someone else to submit the fix.  If you can't 
do that, suggest/request (not demand) that someone else submit a fix 
free of charge.  Otherwise, live with the thing you don't like, and 
remind yourself that you got the software for free.
5.  If you have a need for a specific piece of functionality, you can 
wait an indefinite period of time for someone else to pay for it, or pay 
for it yourself.  Of course, if your need is critical, you may not have 
time to wait.

When we first started working with OFBiz, I was truly amazed at how much 
functionality and documentation the software already had - for FREE, and 
at the fact that most of that had been paid for by other companies.
We were going to reap the benefits of someone else's investment.  I 
don't make the buying decisions around here, but I certainly hope that 
we give back to the community by supporting further development, either 
through outside paid developers, or by contributing some of our own 
development.  Already, we have made small modifications that either have 
been committed or are potential contributions in the future.

My perception, real or not, of the developers in this community who make 
money from consulting and customized development is that they do a lot 
for free.  Many of the other developers at the November conference in 
Ephraim gave us lots of help while we were there and continued to do so 
afterwards.

I am one of three full time programmers tasked with developing OFBiz for 
use by our company, and a fourth who knows our old system backwards and 
forwards who also helps out when needed.  I see our total development 
time being 18 months, possibly longer.  There are two reasons for this, 
one being that we have the tedious task of converting our old sales data 
(back to 1993).  The second is that the four of us also have to keep 40 
computers and telephones, our telephone system, our old database system, 
a mail server, and a webserver running so that we can still move 
product.  During our efforts so far to convert, I have never felt that 
we don't have abundant resources at our disposal, paid or unpaid.

Now... back to figuring out which table entries to mark an order as paid 
with a check...

-- 
David Shere
Information Technology Services
Steele Rubber Products

Re: Newbie's impressions

["David E. Jones" <jo...@hotwaxmedia.com>]

On Jan 24, 2007, at 2:49 PM, David Shere wrote:

> Someone suggested that there are no newbies in this forum.  Hi.   
> Newbie here.  Started working with OFBiz about six months ago.

Thanks for your comments David. Based on what you wrote here I'd say  
you've crossed the line out of newbie territory!

> I don't post much, because:
>
> 1.  We have a handful of paid consultants we use when we have  
> technical problems we can't figure out.
> 2.  My average propensity to try to solve a problem by myself seems  
> to be higher than most other people's.
> 3.  Most of the time by I find a problem, someone else has found it  
> too.
> 4.  I sometimes feel that my understanding of OFBiz is not yet high  
> enough for my technical comments to be useful.
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding of the community  
> consists of the following:
>
> 1.  Download and use of the software is free of charge, not free of  
> work.
> 2.  Software is not guaranteed to work, but it does work very well  
> most of the time.
> 3.  Use and modify at your own risk
> 4.  If you don't like something, submit a fix.  If you can't bring  
> yourself to do that, pay someone else to submit the fix.  If you  
> can't do that, suggest/request (not demand) that someone else  
> submit a fix free of charge.  Otherwise, live with the thing you  
> don't like, and remind yourself that you got the software for free.
> 5.  If you have a need for a specific piece of functionality, you  
> can wait an indefinite period of time for someone else to pay for  
> it, or pay for it yourself.  Of course, if your need is critical,  
> you may not have time to wait.

No need for corrections here. This is a very good perspective on the  
project.

For some these ideas may feel like a slap in the face, or perhaps a  
bit too much reality for their preferences. For most I think that  
they view this as it is, and use that as an empowerment, and  
opportunity to get things done in ways that simply wouldn't be  
possible or affordable with other (especially commercial) software  
packages in this same space.

Anyway, thanks again for your comments. If you have a hard time  
finding that check payment stuff, do feel free to ask. My guess is  
that with the good attitude you have and the approach you're taking  
that you've already found and solved it by now...

-David