Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

Although I agree with many of the sources of frustration mentioned in the article, there is a way:

For most software projects, there should be a way to buy a commercial support license.

For many, such a license should be required for use in any org which is over X employees. Even if not enforced, this way a conscientious dev can justify for paying for the license.

In addition, for some of the deeper "plumbing" projects, that cannot be really charged for independently, they can included in the licensing of some of the projects that use them, as a clause for certain types of orgs, etc.

Something like - using X also requires a license for log4j of $50/yr - where that could even be a pittance, but included in many projects that benefit.

This will make the software much more reliable, while actually giving a basis for open source devs to have the funds to support themselves, feel self worth, and pay for a lawyer to protect their IP for things like TikTok's move.

As an open source coder, I theoretically love the above, but don't know what license, how to set it up, or how to handle the contracting and payment. In addition, I don't know how to justify my commitment - what exactly am I promising and how.

Nonetheless, if someone like Gitlab were to deal with figuring out the technical steps of the licensing and payments, you bet that I would be happy to move my code off GitHub for it (well, my code is already off GitHub, but whatever), and I bet many others would follow suit.

That does not work.

After several years of hard work a prior open source project that grew to immense popularity got me employment a few times. It wasn’t the actual project, code, or capabilities that meant anything. The only thing appealing about that project was it’s popularity.

Nobody ever looked at the code, except people interested in submitting pull requests. If you think a prospective employer will take the time to analyze the code you are either applying for an exceptional specialized position or completely mistaken.

Work on open source because you like to solve tough problems, want to grow as a developer, or because you just want to build some interesting product. Don’t kid yourself into thinking the code will immediately solve some business interest.

Is it 'worth' working on? That's a function of what I deem worthwhile, which no one else can really answer for me. 'Anymore' implies that it used to be better, which may be true, but I'm inclined to think I may have changed even more than the ecosystem. My time was worth less in the past, so it may have been a valuable use of time (valuable as a term leading back to the first point) than currently. Is there still value in working on FOSS? Yes. Is it worth it to you, or me, or any certain person? Maybe. Is it changing, likely for the worse? I think so, and the examples in the article are concerning.

Software is eating the world and it's mostly through proprietary licensing models. But this doesn't mean that the fight is lost. In fact quite the opposite: it means that FLOSS is more needed than ever. Generally, when a new area opens for software, proprietary software usually has a massive head start, but once the area becomes more well understood, FLOSS products emerge, and often they steal the show of the proprietary competitors, at least in the long run.

In the areas FOSS was able to get a footing, it usually remained. Web browsers have been trending towards the open core model for example, same goes for compilers, most of which are FLOSS. On the server, the GNU/Linux platform is the most commonly used one. Same goes for embedded applications including Android.

Does this translate to end user freedoms? Sadly, in many instances it doesn't. But I think it's still worth fighting for freedom, even if the only reachable audience is other freedom loving enthusiasts instead of the broad majority of people.

> The FOSS that was imagined by Stallman, where end-users could actually use FOSS products in their everyday lives, is not possible under capitalism

I have to disagree. Use a Linux based operating system, self-host your internet services at home, use google free android, or do a subset of that.

Its all open source and works locally.