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There are two kinds of authors of free software: Those who wrote something for themselves and are willing to let the public have the code (but no more than that; and those that want to want their software to be used by the public.

What the author is describing is users confusing the former for the latter.

I believe we should all be the latter rather than the former. But even if we aren't - the onus is upon us to make this clear to the users. It is perfectly reasonable for a user to assume developers will accept bug reports (which is not the same as assuming the bugs will get fixed promptly).

Also, as a FOSS developer - I believe the author is underestimating the significance of accepting bug reports from the public. This has saved me some embarrassment in the past and even got me some collaborators which I would otherwise not have had.




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