So I’ve now had experience fixing other peoples’ software in several different domains. Here’s how it plays out:
Open-source project:
Thanks! Applied.
Proprietary application:
Thank you for your submission. We have taken your request under consideration, and assigned it ticket #17231. In our review for the next release, scheduled to be released in Q4 next year, we will consider each resolved ticket for possible inclusion in our product.
Government project:
[paraphrasing an angry letter to division heads]
Please find attached a 9-page document describing why we cannot include any changes in our software, even 80-line changes that fix crashes such as the ones your agency has experienced. We suggest your agency maintain your own copy of the software with the change applied.
P.S. We doubt seriously it’s really our problem even though you gave us an explanation and a reasonable code fix. Please waste some more time trying to prove it to us.