Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#151

Post by tomxor » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:27 PM UTC

generalpass wrote: post #145

rbultje wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This response reminds me of: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1258531455220609025 Opensource/free software powers most of the stuff we take for granted. The software and their maintainers are equally taken-for-granted.

I agree that the vast majority of people take a lot of open source for granted. However, a lot of open source projects are, frankly, extremely rude to users. Instead of some copy-paste "kindly please direct your question to this resource over here" the users get "GET THE @#%% OUT OF HERE STUPID N00b" and this is from people directly with the project (e.g., domain email address). If you think this doesn't impact your…

Please remember: each open source project is a different person, sometimes literally. That they share licensing ideologies does not necessarily mean the people producing them behave the same way. That said it's fairly well known that the pressure of hoards of obligated users on popular projects can easily push the most patient of authors over the edge.

As some anecdata: My experience in various open source projects as a submitter of bugs, fixes and features has been welcomed with respect and understanding even when we don't agree or I turn out to be the ignorant one.

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#152

Post by etimberg » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:30 PM UTC

I've been maintaining Chart.js [0] since 2014. I only work on it during my free time (evenings and weekends) to avoid any problems with my day job.

Conflict with my day job is also one of the reasons why I don't take donations. There is some benefit to that though because it allows me to take a day/week/month off if I need it without feeling guilty. Once there is money involved, there are a lot more expectations and I think I would have a harder time putting it down.

0: https://github.com/chartjs/Chart.js/

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#153

Post by rayrrr » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:38 PM UTC

Day job. No time to explain more because...well, day job.

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#154

Post by ladybro » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:40 PM UTC

etimberg wrote: post #152

I've been maintaining Chart.js [0] since 2014. I only work on it during my free time (evenings and weekends) to avoid any problems with my day job. Conflict with my day job is also one of the reasons why I don't take donations. There is some benefit to that though because it allows me to take a day/week/month off if I need it without feeling guilty. Once there is money involved, there are a lot more expectations and…

I love Chart.js. Thank you kindly for your time and effort.

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#155

Post by madballster » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:42 PM UTC

jbk wrote: post #138

madballster wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is giving 25 people bread, water and shelter and most of all a job they enjoy not impressive?

Because, as soon as I wanted to raise money from VC to grow the business, it was very difficult to get anything. And we have a lot of research and projects, that we never get released, and other people use the tech, rewrap it and get the $$ :)

I commend you for your personal ambition, but sometimes getting a different perspective can be a good thing. Your complaint basically is that you are having a hard time getting a VC investment for your (otherwise perfectly fine) running business that feeds a lot of mouths and - while not making a fortune - makes money.

On a certain level that's akin to a tenured professor with a perfectly fine University career complaining he has little chance of ever being awarded the Nobel Prize.

Ambition is great, but do not let it cloud your sense of pride in your achievements. If you're not content being 90th percentile, what gives you confidence you'd be happier being 99.9th percentile?

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#156

Post by akerro » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:42 PM UTC

>But the question is how do you sustain yourself while working fulltime on building/maintaining open source software

I sometimes feel opensource collaborative projects only exists thanks to alcohol, but single-person projects thanks to boredom or scratching itch.

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#157

Post by orlandohill » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:44 PM UTC

sudhirj wrote: post #128

I have a day job, but I'm trying to see if I can make a living off open source. I'm building a set of libraries, licensing them under the GPL, and offering to sell LGPL and Apache 2.0 licenses for those who need them (any commercial use will require either LGPL or Apache 2). I also found the PolyForm Noncommercial license which, I think is pretty great for hobbyist use and learning, so I'm trying to sell that license…

I imagine that most companies would use Redimo on their web servers. In that case, the GPL wouldn't require them to do anything, so they could always use the software for free. Even the AGPL wouldn't help much, because it would only require companies to open source software that directly extends or modifies Redimo. MongoDB dropped their use of AGPL for exactly that reason.

Have you considered using the Parity Public License and selling private licenses through License Zero? https://paritylicense.com/ https://licensezero.com/

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#158

Post by XCSme » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:46 PM UTC

etimberg wrote: post #152

I've been maintaining Chart.js [0] since 2014. I only work on it during my free time (evenings and weekends) to avoid any problems with my day job. Conflict with my day job is also one of the reasons why I don't take donations. There is some benefit to that though because it allows me to take a day/week/month off if I need it without feeling guilty. Once there is money involved, there are a lot more expectations and…

Thanks for creating Chart.js, I use it in my analytics app[0] to display graphs, I didn't find any better alternative yet.

[0]: https://usertrack.net/

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#159

Post by bergstromm466 » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:46 PM UTC

jbk wrote: post #144

dueF7un3 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder : do you have the same engineer turn over than "regular" companies, that is developers leaving after two or three years max? Everywhere around me, I see companies who expected to go big and profit on IPO failing. Nothing new, but I get the feeling it's getting harder to attract investors in that model (this was already a feeling I had before lockdown). This kind of company you're building, who focus on profi…

> I wonder : do you have the same engineer turn over than "regular" companies, that is developers leaving after two or three years max? We don't. Clearly not. People leaving is very rare. But also, our recruitment is very different from normal companies. :)

> our recruitment is very different from normal companies.

Please could you share a bit about what your recruitment strategies look like? And do you all work remote?

Re: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself

#160

Post by mugsie » Mon, May 18, 2020, 12:47 PM UTC

Day job, at least somewhat related to my open source work. I have been quite lucky that most of my employers have supported my open source work, from time allocated to it during "working hours", to funding conference attendance.