Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#281

Post by GoblinSlayer » Mon, Dec 27, 2021, 10:09 AM UTC

thawkins wrote: post #227

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically the maintainers can always say "fuck you, pay me", but they don't, because they know blaming is a good thing.

That should possibly be something that is added directly to the licenses, you can take my product free of charge, but if you want changes you have to pay me at this rate. Put contact details and an expiry date on the deal so people can't get jacked up with very old prices on very old versions. That would also encourage people to keep thier 3rd party inclusions up to date. I don't think that would pass muster as an OS…

The support offer can sit side by side with the license in, say, support.txt

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#282

Post by solididiot » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:05 AM UTC

johannes1234321 wrote: post #213

solididiot wrote: post #123

I'd personally not work on SW that could be used by someone else commercially at zero expense. In that sense I never understood why people moved away from GPL and started using "do whatever you want"-license types. Funny trivia. I spent considerable time working on corporate SW that acted as a gatekeeper for GPL-like licenses. It seems that one of the worst things a corporation can do to itself is use free SW with su…

> In any case if you approach FOSS romantically I think you're in for a big let down. It's some form of business transaction. Nebulous and tricky but business nontheless. That it one view. However I for one did quite some work on opensource work, where all I got out we're interesting problems to solve. There I didn't care who is using it in the end. I created a solution and maybe got feedback from people smarter than…

> My job pays enough

What if that wasn't the case or you were unable to find a job altogether? Would you still think the exact same way?

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#283

Post by larsrc » Fri, Dec 31, 2021, 8:12 AM UTC

Radim wrote: post #114

fivelessminutes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a licencing 'race to the bottom'. If there is a liberally-licensed alternative, resources will divert to that.

Right, you cut to the heart of things. There is a licensing "race to the bottom" happening. Which makes sense from the demand side (of course people want free). But where does the supply side come from? Why does the floor keep constantly dropping? Who are these developers, always willing to do more for less? In my experience: * Some of it: people who open source their hobby projects. The personal upside of investing…

Only the large enterprises have an incentive to lower the license bar. But they have become a much larger force in the area over the last ten years.

Re: Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?

#284

Post by Radim » Sat, Jan 01, 2022, 9:57 PM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #163

Radim wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, you cut to the heart of things. There is a licensing "race to the bottom" happening. Which makes sense from the demand side (of course people want free). But where does the supply side come from? Why does the floor keep constantly dropping? Who are these developers, always willing to do more for less? In my experience: * Some of it: people who open source their hobby projects. The personal upside of investing…

I also see what you're describing, but I see it as a good thing. This is software available for me or anyone else to use for anything we want. This has many benefits, including that it makes everything else just a bit cheaper because it can depend on standard widely used components.

But I haven't stated my preference, one way or another :-)

The "bottom" judgement in "race to the bottom" was quoted from the OP.

For what it's worth, I personally contribute or have contributed to open source in all three forms that I identified. And exactly for the incentives listed.