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Ask HN: Why you do open source?

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Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#61

Post by carterschonwald »

albertzeyer wrote: post #16

Close Source development means that everyone (every company) is re-inventing the wheel again and again. Much development cost and time is wasted. Also, if some company dies, all the work might be lost. I don't like the thought that one just totally waste the time and work of humans. Open Source is working together with each one to advance the whole human race. Nothing is wasted. The whole human community benefits. Th…

Exactly. It's a move to avoid a Nash equilibrium and push the world towards a socially optimal configuration. (Ie a global optima for everyone ideally, rather than a Pareto optima.)

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#62

Post by Achshar »

It has probably been said in this very thread before but here goes nothing. Here is why I made some of my own code open. Some of it was college stuff. I wrote assignment programs and made them open so others can see it. (I am almost the only one in entire class who can write code that does not suck) I made it open so others can understand.

One other project I made open was because it was a practice code and I wanted to show it off and maybe (again) help others who want to do something similar. I also made it open because I didn't intend to work on it anymore. One time job, so if someone else finds it of any use, they can commit to the main repo and improve the source repo instead of keeping the changes to themselves. And in the likely case that no one commits anything (no one has, yet) I wanted it to be somewhat of a demo code in case I wanted to show my skills to someone quick or impress someone.

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#65

Post by mtrimpe »

michaelochurch wrote: post #54

I'll paste this same text into your Google Doc... I don't know what your technical level is so I'll aim for college-educated with a broad understanding of technology. Apologies if I come off as condescending; I don't know what you know. Feel free to use this in your paper. You can also snip out profanity of course (or leave it in for flavor; that's up to you). Email: michael.o.church at gmail [Start here] In my opini…

So open source is the digital age's version of promotional gifts for your (personal) brand?

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#66

Post by npsimons »

Picture this: you're using an app on your phone - doesn't matter what it runs; most probably it's one of the big two smartphone options, or a "dumbphone"; even if it's one of the niche players, odds are good the following scenario plays out: the app you're using fails. It's annoying, it may even be a showstopper. Maybe you can find another one that does the same thing, maybe better, maybe not. The point is, even though you have the illusion of choice, you aren't truly free to try and fix it yourself, not to mention you may never be able to get your information out of it.

This alone should be enough motivation to not just use, but contribute to open source. It empowers the users, and let's face it, we're all users these days. Beyond that, there is also the factor of giving back, or making a mark, making something of lasting worth. Sure, proprietary software is worth something - until you can't use it anymore because you don't have the source, and it either won't run on your platform, or has issues that make it unusable.

I myself am not a big open source developer - I mainly find bugs in products I use and contribute patches back (I'm a pretty good fixer ;). The difference between open and closed source? I can make a change to the software I use.

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#67

Post by mitchi »

michaelochurch wrote: post #54

I'll paste this same text into your Google Doc... I don't know what your technical level is so I'll aim for college-educated with a broad understanding of technology. Apologies if I come off as condescending; I don't know what you know. Feel free to use this in your paper. You can also snip out profanity of course (or leave it in for flavor; that's up to you). Email: michael.o.church at gmail [Start here] In my opini…

Isn't too much open-source also a bad thing? I think we are doing ourselves a disservice by creating open source software that automates the job of the programmer. It eliminates a lot of programming jobs. Many programmers learn to be "modifiers" instead of creators and so they never really learn... And besides, look at other professions. Is the plumber, the carpenter, the doctor, the lawyer giving you some service for free? There is a one way relationship going on here. Of course, it's easier for us to give stuff away because code, like data, can be copied easily. It's not the same kind of service but it's still something to think about.

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#68

Post by saosebastiao »

I open source because once upon a time, when I was a lowly entry level Supply Chain Analyst that had no influence over IT expenditures, I often fell into a trap where I needed better tools but couldn't buy them.

-Access Databases have stupid problems, but SQLServer is too expensive? Postgres! -SAS is out of reach and Excel is dumb for multiple linear regressions? R! -Reporting is too manual in Excel and VBA is fragile? JasperReports! -Cognos/OBIEE is not possible? Mondrian!

Open Source amplified my power and productivity by 10-100x, and it didn't cost me a dime. Small contributions ended up making even bigger impacts. Open Source is a positive feedback loop, and you get a surprising amount back for the tiny bit that you put in.

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#69

Post by opensourceman »

I like making computers do useful things, but they aren't always very cooperative, and sometimes we disagree about what's right.

Having source code helps me understand things from the computer's point of view.

Having open source tools and infrastructure to compile it helps me make my system behave better.

Being able to share my changes with the rest of the world helps me and others learn the wisdom of those changes.

All these things can still happen with closed source, but the process takes longer.

tl;dr - I'm only going to live for so long, so open source lets me live a more productive and fulfilling life.

Re: Ask HN: Why you do open source?

#70

Post by rj_steinert »

Since Eric S. Raymond wrote Cathedral and the Bazaar in the 90s, it's been clear that (often) contributing code with an Open Source license results in lower development costs in the long run because you don't have the overhead of maintaining your own private fork. For example...

Lets say you pick up a piece of Open Source software, implement it and make some bug fixes and new features along the way. By contributing those bug fixes you avoid the overhead of having to merge your own bug fixes and features into the code base again and again as you pull in other bug fixes and features from other developers. By releasing your bug fixes and features into the open source code base you have a competitive advantage over your competitors who maintain a private fork of the same software.

Open Source is not charity. It's profit driven. For those that say "it's the right thing to do," either they're doing it for the competitive advantage mentioned above without realizing it or they might just be wasting their time releasing useless open source code. That's not to say I don't think releasing your code is often the right thing to do, I'm CTO for a nonprofit bringing Open Source to Open Educational Resources (http://ole.org) and collaborative development in farming (http://farmhack.net), I'm clearly no crazy capitalist but we use open source for the competitive advantage because as a nonprofit, why not do the best you can do? Open source rocks. Thank you to the giants who pioneered Open Source.

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