[SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

ynikitenko · 2022-06-09 21:10:45

I wrote a file synchronization tool (https://github.com/ynikitenko/yarsync). It has some important advantages for me over what was done by others before; here I'm not going to discuss that, but let us assume that is quality (as it can be done by one person without other users) software (I know how to create good software). The question is: how do I promote that to free software community, so that people could at least know about that?

First of all: of course, I published that on github.

I wrote an article in Russian on Habr (which is said to be the largest European IT site): https://habr.com/ru/post/662163/
However, I have a feeling that even though there were several thousand reads (can't check it now), most people read it mostly out of curiosity, not because of the need (I also learnt that many people have their ad-hoc solutions in this area).
Anyway, after that article the code has 8 stars on github. Maybe that is already good?

Now I was thinking about how to promote that to the international audience.
An article to LWN? If they accept. Probably they write only about established software (with a large user base)?
A scientific article? My method is non-standard and optimal, so I think it could be a good article in CS. However, I don't read CS journals and don't learn about software from them. I'm afraid that even if I publish, it won't add any new users to the program.
Free Software Foundation? Some other open source software support? My program has GPL-3.0 license, so they might like that and promote (in some software lists people don't read...) In fact, it would be great if the code gets such support and gets new developers / maintainers in the long run.
Arch Wiki? Wikipedia? I saw there lists of file synchronisation software, but not sure about the criterion for inclusion.
Stackoverflow / other recommendation sites?

I wrote another free software: an architectural framework for data analysis (https://github.com/ynikitenko/lena). I promoted that at several youth conferences (turned out people are there mostly to report, not learn), and also on Habr. That is a much more powerful software that I write about here (also better documented and tested); I already made 5 releases of that (including PyPI), but I don't know of any of its users yet (and it has only 4 stars on github). That is why I was thinking more about the promotion in the first place (for the data analysis framework, I wanted to make that even more powerful and spread the news between physicists).

Is it normal that free software is used by only its author? For how many years should I develop that until it gains some popularity (this is what I remember about histories of such great software tools as nginx/Django, and probably others)? Or are there any good steps right in the beginning? ("Release early" was probably one of the FSF guidelines, but it doesn't seem to work for me) I'm thinking about one better option at this initial time, because I don't have time to promote my software at once everywhere, and if I write an article for "LWN" or a scientific journal, that would be different articles. And I also need to support and develop my program and its documentation.

Last edited by ynikitenko (2022-06-10 08:13:35)

jasonwryan · 2022-06-09 21:38:41

Package it for Arch. Upload to the AUR. Open a thread in Community Contributions.

ynikitenko · 2022-06-10 08:15:51

Thanks, Jason!
I will do that.
Maybe I posted into a wrong forum section, sorry. For now I mark it as "solved", but any other ideas are also welcome.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-06-10 08:24:42

ynikitenko wrote:

Arch Wiki? Wikipedia? I saw there lists of file synchronisation software, but not sure about the criterion for inclusion.

Register on the ArchWiki as a member and use the "Edit" button to add your software. See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ArchWiki:Contributing

ynikitenko · 2022-07-03 13:42:26

Thanks again jasonwryan and Head_on_a_Stick!

It took me quite some time to improve the program and make its first release. I submitted it to AUR and made an announcement at

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=277737

I also added that to several relevant pages (I found it explicitly written in the discussion that AUR programs are allowed):
Synchronization and backup programs
Synchronization and backup programs (in Russian)
Utilities: file synchronization and backup
Rsync

Not sure about Wikipedia, but I initiated a discussion in the talk about rsync and added it to a list of programs that use that.

Writing here just for a reference - I think this can be continued under the Announcement page. Thanks again!

2ManyDogs · 2022-07-03 16:58:50

ynikitenko wrote:

Writing here just for a reference - I think this can be continued under the Announcement page. Thanks again!

Closing this -- any discussion can go in the other topic: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=277737

Arch Linux

#1 2022-06-09 21:10:45

[SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

#2 2022-06-09 21:38:41

Re: [SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

#3 2022-06-10 08:15:51

Re: [SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

#4 2022-06-10 08:24:42

Re: [SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

#5 2022-07-03 13:42:26

Re: [SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

#6 2022-07-03 16:58:50

Re: [SOLVED] How to promote my free software?

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