Not to be argumentative, and I generally see your point :)

I do occasionally write software that will have zero users -- not even myself. Because it's fun to play with the code. "I wonder if I can prototype a openscad type thingy using Python set syntax..." Or whatever. It's the equivalent of sitting in front of a piano and creating song fragments to pass the time.

Naturally the benefit here is that you're developing skills, passing time in an entertaining fashion, and working the ole grey matter.

What’s the point of writing software without users?

Software developers excel at creating ever-more-elaborate ways to heat up a CPU.

CC: @troyunrau@lemmy.ca

I've had similar experiences to what troyunrau@lemmy.ca describes. The problem comes more from the expectations that users have as consumers, which they bring with them to open source projects from general culture, not necessarily the existence of the users themselves. Some of those users for big open source projects are often corporations, to boot.