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Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

gavinhoward.com

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Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#241

Post by cma »

tlocke wrote: post #79

I work on a few Open Source libraries and they're used by companies that make a lot of money, and people often regard me as a mug for doing the hard work for free so that other people can make lots of money. The argument I give in response is that from an economic perspective, you can only make money from a unique advantage, and since Open Source can be used by anyone, it's not giving anyone a unique advantage. I'd p…

You might be looking at this wrong. The unique advantage could be first mover network effects and lock-in and then you are still being exploited. Your software isn't a unique advantage but no on else can break in and have use for it due to unrelated barriers to entry. This depends a lot on exactly what it is.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#242

Post by timw0j »

I work on an open-source program full-time, being paid to work on it by a company that makes a commercial product overlaid on top of it. I don't feel like the company making a product based on it diminishes the work I do on it at all. We have a fairly vibrant community of users of the OSS software. I feel like any work that I contribute as a paid employee also enriches those users and their individual use cases for it.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#243

Post by scotty79 »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #142
scotty79 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate? I'm not a native speaker.

Appropriated generally means taking without the authority to do so, which isn't true with free software. It can also mean to take exclusive control of, which somewhat works with further changes being proprietary. I thought the use was fine.

So the case of tiktok taking OBS and building closed product on it wasn't 'taking without authority to do so'?

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#244

Post by throwaway27727 »

southerntofu wrote: post #154
cobertos wrote: post #73

Only certain FOSS is worth working on for me. Here's my heuristic as of today. * Don't work on FOSS that supports a SaaS or proprietary product. You're enriching someone else's ecosystem for no money. You take on the communication bandwidth and issue load of dealing with not only your issues but their issues too. Your software is useless if theirs fails. It's thankless. * Don't work on FOSS you aren't using yourself…

> Don't work on FOSS that supports a SaaS or proprietary product. So true. I'd expand on that with a more specific example: game modders. When i look at all the energy spent on game mods which bring significant (gratis) value to commercial games, i can't help but wonder what the FOSS gamedev ecosystem would look like if all those dedicated people put their energy on free-software ecosystem. Minecraft for example made…

The example of game modding is more related to the corollary of the third point: work on FOSS for something you currently use (or in this case, play). Why not if it's something that brings you enjoyment?

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#245

Post by snth »

fivelessminutes wrote: post #109
kortilla wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value isn’t “consumed”. I get as much value out of my open source projects regardless of who is using them. The fact that you consider users to be “leeches” means you’re missing the point of open source.

'Leech' is the correct term for this relationship. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_(computing) Contributors are not leeching the work. Users who don't contribute are though, especially when they suck down developer time with issues. You're not in a position to judge my understanding of FOSS because the word 'leech' makes you uncomfortable.

Eh... regardless of how it's generally used, I think "leech" implies a parasite that is actively harming a host. Generally users who don't contribute aren't directly _benefitting_ the author, but they generally aren't harming the author either.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#246

Post by snth »

bregma wrote: post #139
austincheney wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ti…

A part of my job is to review CVs and select candidates to interview for my team. The first thing I do is check to see if they have a github account, and if they do I check their projects. Anything that looks relevant gets a quick inspection. It makes difference to whether they get an interview, and it makes for some topics of discussion during the interview. It confirms for me that the candidate is in fact actually…

I think it's great that you do this, but I agree with the parent that it's rare.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#247

Post by redthrow »

sam_goody wrote: post #11

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" projec…

Stephan Kinsella (who's a patent lawyer) uses an example of some clueless person writing a book and in one of the pages he says, "If you possess this book for more than a minute you are obligated to pay me $1000 per month", and he puts this book on a park bench waiting for someone to pick it up. He later tries to sue the person who picked up the book for not paying their due.

Kinsella uses this example to illustrate how some people have no idea how contracts work.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#248

Post by beebeepka »

McWobbleston wrote: post #222
beebeepka wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't do this. The premise sounds good but some of the best things in gaming were conceived as mods. Team fortress was a Quake mod. Now, I personally don't blike moba games but Dota also started as a mod. Not to mention Quake OSP/CPMA/Defrag, UTComp, HLDM, Black Mesa and countless others.

It's really unfortunate how unfriendly games are to modding both technically and legally today. We've certainly missed out on a lot of potential

In a previous life, I used to work for a game retailer. I couldn't believe EA was charging 20 euro for a handful of maps and that some people were willing to pay for their own community's destruction thanks to these map packs acting as gatekeepers.

Mods = love

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#249

Post by hinkley »

chongli wrote: post #201
cobertos wrote: post #73

Only certain FOSS is worth working on for me. Here's my heuristic as of today. * Don't work on FOSS that supports a SaaS or proprietary product. You're enriching someone else's ecosystem for no money. You take on the communication bandwidth and issue load of dealing with not only your issues but their issues too. Your software is useless if theirs fails. It's thankless. * Don't work on FOSS you aren't using yourself…

That first heuristic is very difficult. It means you can’t work on the Linux kernel or pretty much anything that could be used for server infrastructure. It also means you’re very restricted in license choices since you otherwise never know if your project might get picked up in the future and used in a proprietary service. This likely means you have to use something like AGPL.

It’s probably more like how some video channels on YouTube are careful with their sponsorship. LTT has been careful to make sure that no company is the majority of their funding, and more recently, that no company is the plurality of their funding.

If the biggest or only user is one company and its customers, it’s not really capital O Open.

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