VersionTracker, meet PerversionTracker. FreshMeat.net, meet RottenFlesh. OK, so the parody sites are funny– I especially like that RottenFlesh is hosted at FreshMeat.
But the subtext behind these parodies is that all the hotfixes and updates are stupid and that the unstable projects are a waste of time. And it’s not true. Everything has an unstable phase. If you don’t want to use it, wait for 1.0.
Sure, there’s a lot of crappy software out there, sometimes overambitious, but more often written for an audience of one or none– an experiment or exercise or tutorial the developer is using to learn new tricks. It’s true that there are a lot of people who are update junkies and want the l33test w4rez or whatever, and that they are annoying. They also help make better software by testing every snapshot and reporting bugs.
In my experience, there are two things customers ask of software vendors: less complexity, and more features. It’s just like at any school cafeteria there are two categories of request: serve more pizza and fries, and make the food healthier. Obviously, it’s not usually the same person asking for both things, but it’s still hard to meet conflicting demands.
It’s a big menu, kids. Pick what you want and recognize that not everyone has the same tastes as you.