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[return to "What comes after open source? Bruce Perens is working on it"]
1. andy99+Vi1[view] [source] 2023-12-28 00:21:37
>>gnufx+(OP)
I want my worst enemies to be able to use my open source code against me and my competitors to be able to re-purpose it to try and drive me out of business. When I want to write code with different restrictions, I do that and I don't call it open source.

If people want to create and promote their own utopian models that's their business. Personally I'd want nothing to do with that, and it definitely should not be called open source, just like any restrictive license.

On another note, a transaction is a meeting of the minds. When most people release open source software they want nothing in return and are owed nothing. That's how I feel about it. People who think they are owed something are like beggars who do miming or some such in the street and call it work. Nobody asked for it, some find it interesting and you might be able to guilt someone into paying but they didn't hire you and don't owe you anything. You can just not do it, it's only a job if you're explicitly hired.

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2. wavemo+PF1[view] [source] 2023-12-28 04:08:42
>>andy99+Vi1
I also generally feel like most of the really substantial open-source projects are able to get a good amount of donations and corporate sponsors. People DO pay, when the thing you're creating (an operating system, a programming language, a database) is complex and business-critical.

But nowadays it seems like everyone who creates a JavaScript package that concats two strings together, wants to be able to quit their day job and live on donations. It's just not realistic.

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3. evantb+EI1[view] [source] 2023-12-28 04:38:56
>>wavemo+PF1
Your feelings don't match reality. Very few people are earning good wages by building open-source software, even though there is no shortage of important projects. Most money being made is from side-hustles, which are jobs in of themselves.
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4. wavemo+aH2[view] [source] 2023-12-28 14:38:53
>>evantb+EI1
I'm genuinely curious which specific projects you're referring to, that are both highly important and also unable to secure donations.
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5. evantb+CV5[view] [source] 2023-12-29 15:59:28
>>wavemo+aH2
A better question is which projects are actually paying all or most of their major contributors industry rates based on donations? It seems like the word "important" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your statement. I bet even for the projects you have in mind that most contributors never receive a cent, and the major contributors have only received compensation for a fraction of their work if calculated at industry rates. A quick look at open collective should show you how little money there is to be made in open-sourcing code in of itself.
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6. wavemo+Gf6[view] [source] 2023-12-29 17:20:24
>>evantb+CV5
That clarifies the disconnect. I never claimed that open-source development pays "all or most of their major contributors industry rates". I said "most of the really substantial open-source projects are able to get a good amount of donations and corporate sponsors."

You seem to have misunderstood "good" to mean "everyone involved in the project will make equivalent to what they could have made working the same number of hours in Silicon Valley". When really all I meant was that the founder, and maybe sometimes a small group adjacent, can afford to spend all or at least part of their time maintaining and steering the project. If that's your argument, then you and I are in agreement.

Another commenter in this thread said it best - Open Source is a community. People participate in it because they enjoy doing so, not to get rich. If I can do something I enjoy, on my own schedule, entirely freed from corporate interests, and get rent money for it, I would certainly call that "good".

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7. evantb+3l6[view] [source] 2023-12-29 17:47:05
>>wavemo+Gf6
Thank you for clarifying. Correct, I wouldn't call anything below industry averages to be a "good" trade for full-time work.
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