> It kinda throws the how open source and "everyone can contribute" model out the window, if you can't afford a pretty insane workstation then you're going to have a bad time.
That, it also means you are going to spend a lot of time on it before you can even attempt to do anything.
Overall, there can be a pretty substantial amount of effort involved before you are even ready to make a PR of any kind. Then it remains to be seen if it is well received by the people who can approve it.
You mention Firefox, my dealings with various contributors and people at Mozilla over the years would make me very hesitant to even consider diving into the deep end. To be fair, I have had good interactions with various people as well. But a lot of communication also has been just outright difficult.
All of this also throws out the "if you don't like it, you can just fork it" mindset.
K. To start with, it's been a common phrase in open source since before "open source" was invented and fairly self-explanatory; it means what it means on its face. Even if that weren't the case and someone were just encountering it for the first time in 2024, a 2-second attempt to get acquainted will not leave anyone wondering.
There are 200 results for "patches welcome" on HN:
The top results on Google for the phrase "patches welcome", most being posts written around the 4-, 5-, 6-year mark after the post I linked to, are all based on the same premise: "patches welcome" is (a) common, and (b) not what anyone wants to hear.
But I'm also missing some context here; my "Huh?" was rather more directed at the part of the remark that says "[...] for me to agree or disagree with it".
That, it also means you are going to spend a lot of time on it before you can even attempt to do anything.
Overall, there can be a pretty substantial amount of effort involved before you are even ready to make a PR of any kind. Then it remains to be seen if it is well received by the people who can approve it.
You mention Firefox, my dealings with various contributors and people at Mozilla over the years would make me very hesitant to even consider diving into the deep end. To be fair, I have had good interactions with various people as well. But a lot of communication also has been just outright difficult.
All of this also throws out the "if you don't like it, you can just fork it" mindset.