←back to thread

275 points pabs3 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | source
Show context
evantbyrne ◴[] No.45149415[source]
It's not possible to rug pull an open-source project by just switching new work to a different license. The real issue with open-source is that we don't live in a utopia where you can publish all of your work for free and still live a quality of life comparable to working at an average developer job, and yet so many non-maintainers somehow feel they are owed future labor. Maintainers come and go. Without sponsorship, the half life on maintainers is going to be relatively short, and more developers are going to be pushed to publishing less permissively.
replies(2): >>45150522 #>>45151375 #
Imustaskforhelp ◴[] No.45150522[source]
I agree. Its an incentives issue if I am being honest. If I ever generate software, I would also prefer to open source it but there are mechanisms where either cloud providers or anybody can take my changes and earn over them without me getting anything in return...

I mean, it is technically what it means to have a foss license but I just can't shake the feeling that we as a society are feeling so entitled that people are advocating against sspl licenses or etc. when I do think that if you are a dev and you wish to work on foss full time then something like sspl might be good in that regards.

Open source Contributors just don't get paid for the work they are doing. They are sadly doing free labour. I feel like I personally might start coding stuff in sspl or maybe just source available licenses if they get more favourable. The whole terminology behind source available licenses is kinda weird in the sense that basically a single clause which is meant to stop big cloud providers from selling your service that you built can make something like agpl foss and sspl not foss/source available.

replies(3): >>45152204 #>>45154959 #>>45154964 #
evantbyrne ◴[] No.45152204[source]
You've touched on some interesting points here. I have also felt the entitlement, but while contemplating why it exists I came to the conclusion that it is due to a misplaced belief that open-source primarily benefits the individual and as such is a righteous crusade. While individuals may become beneficiaries in particular use-cases, I would argue that it is actually corporations that benefit the most, and not by a small margin. Just think of all that labor they get away with not having to pay for and all that specialized knowledge they don't have hire for. Then they also benefit from publishing libraries to end users so that their platforms may be more deeply integrated in customer's tech stacks. Meanwhile the guy maintaining the various open-source libraries that underpin those commercial services doesn't get anything at all. One might even be able to claim that open-source is predominantly an upwards transfer of wealth from engineers to executives.
replies(2): >>45152371 #>>45170072 #
1. mistrial9 ◴[] No.45152371[source]
yes mostly agree but, this has "ten blind men and an elephant" feel to it, also. Long, long ago (in Internet years) it was not clear that certain code, standard, stacks and practices would survive let along prevail, facing slick marketing, inside contract practices (MSFT etc) and the drumbeat of quarterly results reports. "open source" software was a go-board move.. to gain traction in a way that was not easily reversible, given the motivations and then, the time frame -- recall the Silicon Valley motto in the extreme-expansion years "it is faster to adapt an existing stack and then compete, than to start by developing your own before you can compete" .. later changed to "open source your business complement".

So "win" is a multi-layered definition. Business, big business and Corporations win in economic terms often because, they have economic objectives and then execute them. Authors scratch an itch, or finish a college degree, or move on to join another band. none of those things have the aggregate, countable result that a quarterly income statement has.. in 2025, what code is stable, generally available and (often) maintained? is that "winning" ? other corollaries possible..