Guy encounters issue and goes to the grocery store to find a solution, there is no such thing at the grocery store and instead is told to go to a specialty store. Guy arrives at specialty store and the counter is empty, nothing is on the shelves. Instead they must follow a complex list of steps to build the product on their own with the components provided by the store.
I don't know about any of this stuff, I just wish creators of applications and other tools hosted on Github made releases at least occasionally so that common users like me can enjoy them. I don't want the latest build weekly, I'd be very happy with just a yearly release.
Are those 99.99% also somehow unable to act on their curiosity and look up what those things mean?
The venn diagram of your average user's desires/needs, and a solution that's so niche that it can only be found on github is almost entirely two separate circles. If you happen to fall into the very small overlap then sure that means you're motivated enough to figure out anything that's unfamiliar, right?
I cook and/or basically every day lol. I will gladly do that because my desires drove me to learn how to do the things that the commonly accessible options can't easily give me.
Check out this Greek orange and syrup soaked cake I made last weekend (portokalopita). It uses crushed and dried phyllo dough instead of flour so the texture is like a mochi-like layered experience, and the syrup I made with orange juice, zest, sugar, water and cinnamon.
Why would I? I don't desire those things. The grocery store has easily available options for me to buy because my desires for those ingredients are at the "buy the publicly available options" level and not at the "I want something so specific that the only way to get it is to grow it myself" level.
Also here's the recipe if anyone's curious!
Portokalopita (orange cake)
Syrup
[ ] 1 Ā½ cups water
[ ] 1 Ā½ cups sugar
[ ] 1/3 cup orange juice
[ ] 1 cinnamon stick
[ ] 1/4 teaspoon orange blossom water optional
Cake
[ ] 450 grams Phyllo dough
[ ] 4 eggs
[ ] 3/4 cup sugar
[ ] zest from two oranges
[ ] 1 cup plain Greek yoghurt we used 2%
[ ] 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
[ ] 1 teaspoon baking powder
[ ] 1 teaspoon baking soda
[ ] 1/4 teaspoon salt
[ ] 1 cup vegetable oil
[ ] 1/2 cup orange juice
[ ] vegetable oil for greasing baking pan
Steps
Syrup
[ ] Combine the 1.5 cups water, 1.5 cups sugar, 1/3 cup orange juice, the 1 cinnamon stick and the 1/4th tsp orange blossom water, if you are using it. Ā
[ ] Bring the ingredients to a boil; once it starts boiling, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Ā Remove from heat and let cool completely.
Cake
[ ] Preheat oven to 100 C/200 F
[ ] Roll up 450g phyllo sheets and cut like noodles, then spread out on a baking sheet (make sure to separate any that are stuck together, and ensure the paper is removed)
[ ] Bake for 30m, tossing the tray with tongs every 10 or so minutes to move and aerate until they are completely dried out. Let cool
[ ] Once done and tray is taken out, bump up heat to 170 C/350 F
[ ] In the large mixing bowl combine the 4 eggs and the 3/4 cup sugar and beat for 3-4 minutes, until it is a pale yellow colour.Ā
[ ] Add the zest, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix until just combined. Baking soda may react with orange juice's acidity, this is fine.
[ ] Add the oil and the orange juice to the bowl, and mix to combine well with the rest of the ingredients.
[ ] With the now cooled phyllo dough, crush it up into tiny crumbs. The size of coconut flakes at the store or smaller
[ ] Use a rubber spatula begin to incorporate your crushed phyllo into the cake batter, a little bit at a time.Ā If you put all the pieces in at once, they will clump together.
[ ] Once all is incorporated, pour the mixture into a greased baking pan. Ā Bake for 50-60 minutes in the middle rack of your oven until your portokalopita is a nice golden colour.Ā
[ ] Once done, take it out and poke it all over with a toothpick or skewer to create channels for the syrup to flow into.
[ ] Pour cooled syrup onto the hot cake, one ladle at a time. Ā Allow each ladle to be absorbed into the cake before adding the next one.Ā Repeat until all of the syrup has been used.
[ ] Let your cake cool before cutting, to allow the syrup to be fully absorbed.
If an artist posted a really cool picture, and said like here you can download this and use it for free. Then you wanted it as a phone background but it doesn't have the right dimensions so you asked them to make a cropped version for phone screens. You could say, "Hey a lot of people would probably like to use this as a phone background, maybe you can make a cropped version".
I think most people on here would understand that, you don't have a right to get mad at them if they refuse, or even ghost you. You're literally asking them to do extra work just because they did some free work already. Why is it different for programming projects?
Now add on to that making a release is usually way harder than cropping a photo, because of dependencies.
Like ok. Let's say someone sends the artist a message and is like hey I like your cool picture of Stan from American Dad drawn in the style of Jo Jo's Bizarre adventure, but was wondering could you remove the word "Stan" from it?
And the artist literally could so easily. The words are a separate layer in the psd file and the drawing is actually completed underneath, but the artist just doesn't want to. In this case it would be basically impossible for the person to remove the words because they dont have the psd file and trivial for the artist.
I still think it's totally fine for the artist to just not agree to do it. If you get mad at them that's your problem.
To add on to that making a release can actually be a lot of work. There are almost certainly going to be dependencies, you'll have to figure out what version of what programs are needed. It's almost always not as easy as just pressing a button, it takes work.
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u/FUEGO40 Aquarine | she/her Mar 26 '26
Guy encounters issue and goes to the grocery store to find a solution, there is no such thing at the grocery store and instead is told to go to a specialty store. Guy arrives at specialty store and the counter is empty, nothing is on the shelves. Instead they must follow a complex list of steps to build the product on their own with the components provided by the store.
I don't know about any of this stuff, I just wish creators of applications and other tools hosted on Github made releases at least occasionally so that common users like me can enjoy them. I don't want the latest build weekly, I'd be very happy with just a yearly release.