The bigger issue isn’t compensation but rather the number of corporations who profit handsomely off of the labor of Free Open Source Software developers.
It’s okay is FOSS developers don’t get compensated, that’s part of their ethos.
It’s not okay for corporations to be like “thanks for this free thing, we’re going to take all that profit that your ethos makes you not care about, and what we give back to the open source community will pale in comparison.”
Of course that’s not always true, a handful of companies really pay FOSS developers really well. Valve for example. IBM/RedHat for another.
But for every company that respects where it’s code comes from and wants to support those developers, there’s several more companies that just use FOSS as ‘off-the-shelf’ components with no intention to do anything but use it, set it, and forget it with intent to make profit.
One way to ensure FOSS developers are paid well is to spend money at businesses who pay FOSS developers well and keep them on actual payroll.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 1 year ago
People who are motivated by money have been saying this for decades. And they’re still wrong because not everyone is motivated by money.
souperk@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I kinda agree but you still need money to live and if I was able to work on open source projects while sustaining myself I would choose it anytime.
cerevant@lemm.ee 1 year ago
There are plenty of people who get paid to write open source software. The internet simply wouldn’t exist without OSS:
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Goronmon@lemmy.world 1 year ago
How many working people are doing it not because of the money but solely because they enjoy the work?
CaptainEffort@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
You’d be surprised
wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I work for money. While I enjoy my work. I wouldn’t do it for free. I have to eat, pay a mortgage, etc.
Hell even if I wont the lottery. I wouldn’t do this job for free and it’s a really good job.
Redredme@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I dare to say 0.01%. Most devs, including open source devs are payed one way or another.
Sure, there are labours of love. But most aren’t.
Ritsu@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Sounds like you don’t know the story of core-js. Any popular open-source is basically unsustainable without profit.
github.com/…/2023-02-14-so-whats-next.md