[ide-dev] Link from inside Eclipse IDE to how to contribute

[Mickael Istria <mistria@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

As I'm chatting with unsatisfied former Eclipse IDE users and freeloaders (it's one of my hobbies), I have the impression the Eclipse IDE didn't manage to turn users into contributors because it doesn't fully embrace its "community" model. So they weren't ready (or even tempted) to pay for Eclipse IDE years ago, and now, they're paying for alternative IDEs.

Indeed, there have been many efforts to ship the Eclipse IDE like a product, and users consider it as a product, and they complain like customers when something is failing for them, and upon big disappointment, they switch to competition instead of considering to help.

Targeting a product quality is a good goal, but it's also vital that end-users understand that the IDE depends on their contributions. We mustn't hide that, on the contrary, we must highlight it in the IDE.

So I think we need a visible place inside the IDE to turn some users into contributors (report bug, contribute patches, donate money). This could simply be a link or a menu, when clicked, that would open the current "contribute" page (although this page is not optimal for Eclipse IDE - but we can consider making and using a more dedicated page later).

I've thought about a few possibilities:

* Replace the Welcome page by the "How to contribute page".

* An occasional -or on every startup- popup with a reminder and a link to the page

* Occasionally -or on every startup- just showing up the webpage

* A link in the About dialog

* A menu item in the Help menu

I imagine those would make sense close to the USS plugin, and would make sense in EPP packages.

What do you think about trying something on that topic for Photon?

--

Mickael Istria

Eclipse IDE developer, at Red Hat Developers community

Elected Committer Representative at the Eclipse Foundation board of directors