The Lack of Compensation in Open Source Software Is Unsustainable

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 12:39 PM UTC

api wrote: post #54

ranting-moth wrote: post #13

The feeling of entitlement people have around open source is unsustainable. If someone releases code then that's it. You have it. Do what you want with it (within it's licence). Be thankful. Unless that guy specifically says he's going to maintain it for free you are entitled to exactly absolutely nothing more you ungrateful little git. If you add this code to your project, you should fix and share any problems you e…

Those two things are connected. People will spend $10 on a coffee drink at Starbucks without blinking. Suggest that they spend $10 on a piece of software and they’ll throw a fit and claim you are taking away their rights.

Post by creshal » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 12:39 PM UTC

zrail wrote: post #105

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know anyone who doesn't think Starbucks is overpriced slop. In any European city you'll find local cafes with better quality and prices than what Starbucks sell. They seem to only be present in the big metro areas that attract a lot of tourists, travelers and immigrants who are familiar with the Starbucks brand and go for that out of habbit and know quality, similar to how McDonald's is so popular.

Weird flex but ok. In any area big enough to have a Starbucks in the US you'll find at least one local cafe that has better coffee. You'll also find at least one with much worse coffee that thinks they're better. As you say, people go to Starbucks and McDonalds for familiar known quality and you should be happy for it. That way the tourists and immigrants stay out of your local cafe. Edit: to be clear I'm not defendi…

Post by elforce002 » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 12:41 PM UTC

Post by Qem » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 12:43 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #88

Qem wrote: post #23

I wonder if, society-wide, the best way to allocate resources to free/open source software would be just reducing mandatory work hours. Say, if the average ~ 8h per day were reduced to 7h or 6h, how many of those freed millions of person-hours would be redirected to hobby software projects?

I’d be pretty surprised if that increase averaged more than 15 seconds per person per day and shocked if the increase was more than 3 minutes on average.

  Python 3.11.6 (main, Oct  3 2023, 00:00:00) [GCC 13.2.1 20230728 (Red Hat 13.2.1-1)] on linux
  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
  >>> population_base = [100_000_000, 1_000_000_000, 8_000_000_000]
  >>> for population in population_base:
  ...     print('15s/day for',population, 'people equals:', round((15*population)/3600), 'man-hours/day')
  ... 
  ...     
  15s/day for 100000000 people equals: 416667 man-hours/day
  15s/day for 1000000000 people equals: 4166667 man-hours/day
  15s/day for 8000000000 people equals: 33333333 man-hours/day

Post by otikik » Fri, Nov 17, 2023, 12:48 PM UTC

cyberbuff wrote: post #40

kawhah wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the evidence for this feeling of entitlement? I use tons of free software. I've never either demanded that anyone work on it for free, nor have I expressed any sense of entitlement or expectation.

He didnt mean you specifically. But there are lots of people demanding fixes like its their birthright.