Comment on "I support it only if it's open source" should be a more common viewpoint
hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m an open source developer who’s put thousands of hours of work into my open source projects.
I get wanting to use open source software. I want to use open source software. I want to write open source software. I do write open source software. But please understand that I only do that because I enjoy it. I also need to pay the bills, and there’s not much money in writing open source software.
If you value an open source project, especially if it’s just a small development team that doesn’t sell anything, please donate to them.
Right now, I run an email service, port87.com, and it is technically closed source. But it’s built on my open source projects, Svelte Material UI, Nymph.js, and Nephele. Probably about 70% of the code that makes up Port87 is open source, and if you use Port87, you’re helping me continue to develop those open source projects. So even if you don’t donate to open source projects, there are other ways to contribute. Support companies who support open source projects.
This sort of thing can’t really be done in capitalism at all. Open Source (as it was advanced by Eric S. Raymond and the Mozilla Project back in the late 90s) was always stuck in a capitalist way of thinking.
In a society where everyone has their basic needs met and people are expected to contribute what they can, writing FOSS can be your contribution.
In some “ecosystems” everything being free is kinda how you are compensated, instead of money. You spend time making your app for free, but so does everyone else so you don’t have to pay for those things either. The two main examples I’ve personally been involved with are game modding and 3d printing models, I use the free stuff other people make all the time, releasing the things I make for free is how I pay it back.
But yeah, if you use something you really like, throw them a buck or two for the work.
…although I’ve donated about as much as I’ve received as donations myself. Eh. No matter.
The early mobile phone apps conditioned people to expect things free.
I donate to any project, open or closed source if it’s worth it.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yup, I’m the same way. If I could work in FOSS, I’d be happy to take a pay cut, but FOSS doesn’t pay anywhere near good enough. So it’ll remain a hobby.
As such, I’m pretty reasonable about what needs to be open source, and what’s fine being proprietary. For example:
Basically, the more risk there is of a security issue, the more I expect it to be FOSS. And I’m willing to help out too. I’ve submitted patches to Lemmy and other FOSS projects I use, and I’ll donate something similar to what I’d pay for a proprietary app for certain projects.