Give away your code, but never your time

And so should "open-source code is utility software".

Stallman was right when he said that the Open Source movement would eventually abandon any conceptions of software freedom - it seems to me that we now have a whole generation of "open source" contributors for whom the only type of freedom that matters is the freedom of downstream developers, rather than users, and who seem to think that the role of open source in the world is just to provide a base on top of which one can write proprietary applications. Where do developers of open source end-user applications fit into this picture?

I think what open source needs is some very deliberate price discrimination. Have the license be free to the vast majority of users, and cost money for large corporations that can damn well afford it. Not, like, large amounts of money, just something vaguely close to the all-in cost of one full time developer.

Basically, "BSD, unless you're a $1B+ valued company that is not paying our software foundation $10k/mo".

> You expect me to both dedicate my time to writing the code for a PR, and then pay you for the privilege.

No, better yet it would eliminate PRs from entitled users who think this way — who believe they contribute value by writing up issues and submitting minor pull requests that address their own needs, while remaining blind to the far greater value they receive from the project’s much larger code base; the mammoth time investment of the people who have designed, developed, and maintained that code base; and the thankless job those leaders have done nurturing a community often comprised of far more takers than givers.

Basically, the proposal eliminates the takers. Whether it would work or not is an open question. But if you find yourself feeling indignant at the very suggestion, then maybe take a hard look at which role you really fall in?

I did a lot during University years (while in a different major). I learned, I taught people, it was really fun. Now I only have the time/energy for 2-3 simultaneous side projects, with only 1 being open source at the moment. There's no way I could be doing the same was I married and with kids.

> This smells like a small-minded startup-bubble nonsense to me

Small-minded, no doubt (though "business"-minded rather than specifically startup).

In my national context (Australia), the vast majority of companies, small and large, operate purely in the fundamentalist capitalist mindset. There is no 'should' (conceived ethically) in their stock of concepts. It literally doesn't exist (where it occurs it's just a PR exercise, which the PR department will translate into management's native dog-eat-dog language for their comprehension in meetings).

Ideally we wouldn't work for such companies. But the stock of jobs at better places is limited, so by statistical definition 'most' of us won't be there.