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On the surface, the open source software community has never been better. Companies and governments are adopting open source software at rates that would’ve been unfathomable 20 years ago, and a whole new generation of programmers are cutting their teeth on developing software in plain sight and making it freely available for anyone to use. Go a little deeper, however, and the cracks start to show.
The ascendancy of open source has placed a mounting burden on the maintainers of popular software, who now handle more bug reports, feature requests, code reviews, and code commits than ever before. At the same time, open source developers must also deal with an influx of corporate users who are unfamiliar with community norms when it comes to producing and consuming open source software. This leads to developer burnout and a growing feeling of resentment toward the companies that rely on free labor to produce software that is folded into products and sold back to consumers for huge profits.
The Free Rider Problem rears its head again?
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday February 16 2019, @03:50PM
What that is varies.
Almost every bit of open source software I've written (and free-but-closed source software, for that matter) with the exception of some projects for the disabled has been something I've written so I could use it myself. For the most part, I don't care who uses my work; who uses it has nothing at all to do with why I created it. Everyone, no one, it's all the same to me. I've written code with the idea in mind that others could use it — code that could be used here by Soylent, for example [soylentnews.org] — but you can bet your last $currency that I've already been using it myself.
Others write looking for (and sometimes getting) a bit of publicity, or however you'd like to characterize it — recognition, perhaps. We see this particular type of hunt going on all over social media; it's very common. The proverbial "five minutes of fame."
Yet others write to the tune of creating something they consider to have inherent value to a community, a social system, a nation, etc. These people are trying to accomplish something that isn't "about them" except perhaps as members of that notional community.
Some people write in the hope that it'll pay some or all of their bills, perhaps even get them ahead to some degree.
Then there is charity — straight-up writing to benefit others who need some help.
I'm sure there are crossovers as well. People who wrote something for one reason, but other factors came into play, and their goals altered or expanded.
What I'm getting at here is that there really isn't any single motivator involved WRT writing code, and as there really isn't any significant goal-related barrier to entry, I don't see any chance at all that open source and/or free+closed source efforts will see any particular erosion in volume or quality.
Unless legislators, lawyers and courts do it. Now that I could see becoming a broadly destructive force. The fact that it isn't now certainly isn't for a lack of trying — on either side.
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