[plug] Sobering read on the reality of open source software development

[plug_list at holoarc.net]

Hi Onno,

I understand your frustration. Every day in my current role at Red Hat I 
have discussions with customers over free open source verse paid 
subscriptions. Trying to show value to companies that's not purely based 
all around the code is hard. Its more around what you can give beyond 
just the code (e.g. as a service, support, etc). Happy to catch up 
sometime for a coffee and discuss further and see where I can help you? 
(feel free email me off list or ping me on Linkedin)

Like to say I will be at the next plug event, but having baby has made 
it hard :)

Kind Regards

Shaun Hofer

On 21/03/2022 11:44 am, Onno Benschop wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> First of all, didn't know such a thing existed, great!
>
> As for the broader issue, the current Open Source model is broken. 
> I've just spent two days publishing some scripts I wrote which are no 
> doubt going to save people time and effort. I am self-employed and 
> that time came out of my own pocket, there's no magic employer or 
> benefactor paying me for it.
>
> This is true for much of the code that is published. It's true for 
> much of the content on the Internet, podcasts, websites, graphics, 
> music, all of it is being produced by people who mostly don't get paid 
> for any of it.
>
> You can argue that you should sort out money before you start 
> publishing, and in an ideal world that would be the case, except that 
> nobody would publish and you would end up with no content, other than 
> that sanctioned by the main media outlets.
>
> The centralisation of software and media are both following the same 
> path. As a software developer and podcaster, I'm contributing more 
> than most to the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Github, AWS and 
> others. None of this generates income.
>
> For a while I asked for donations. I think in 10 years I made $300. 
> That's not enough to pay for coffee, let alone food, rent, 
> electricity, let alone internet connectivity, computers and the like.
>
> All of my efforts are for "public benefit", but the people making that 
> benefit are those who need it least.
>
> So, despite the fact that there is such a thing as "The Linux 
> Foundation", that doesn't structurally actually deal with the 
> underlying issue. Freeloaders.
>
> I note that I've stopped participating in Hackathons, despite winning 
> each one I entered, since this too is an example of freeloading, where 
> a project benefits from hundreds, if not thousands of man-hours, at no 
> charge, when the organisations who put these events together, 
> Government Departments, Mining and Accounting, large IT companies, all 
> have plenty of money to actually pay each participant for their work, 
> but don't.
>
> So, how is this fixed?
>
> Should we all go on strike? Should we call out the behaviour? Should 
> we charge for every download?
>
> I think that having a discussion here is a very good start.
>
> As a side-observation. I'm typing this on a Linux Desktop which I'm 
> running at no charge. Should I pay for that, or is my history of 
> lodging bug reports, updating documentation, publishing scripts and 
> podcasts enough "payment"?
>
> Look forward to your thoughts.
>
> On Mon, 21 Mar 2022 at 11:08, Chris Hoy Poy <chris at hoypoy.id.au> wrote:
>
>     I find it interesting there is no mention of my employer, The
>     Linux Foundation.
>
>     We steward and support many open source projects & foundations,
>     including CNCF (home of kubernetes), OpenJS and of course the
>     Linux kernel itself.
>
>     https://linuxfoundation.org/projects/
>
>     At least some of this issue is around establishing and connecting
>     sponsors to projects, which is a lot of our community work too.
>
>     We have our own open source research team as well, and release
>     annual reports on open source jobs etc - 2021 report is here:
>
>     https://www.linuxfoundation.org/tools/the-2021-open-source-jobs-report/
>
>     Cheers
>     /Chris
>
>     On Mon, 21 Mar 2022, 8:25 am Onno Benschop, <onno at itmaze.com.au>
>     wrote:
>
>         https://www.businessinsider.com/open-source-developers-burnout-low-pay-internet-2022-3
>
>         --
>         finger painting on glass is an inexact art - apologies for any
>         errors in this scra^Hibble
>
>         ()/)/)() ..ASCII for Onno..
>         _______________________________________________
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>
>
> -- 
> Onno Benschop
>
> ()/)/)()        ..ASCII for Onno..
> |>>?            ..EBCDIC for Onno..
> --- -. -. ---   ..Morse for Onno..
>
> If you need to know: "What computer should I buy?" http://goo.gl/spsb66
>
> ITmaze   -   ABN: 56 178 057 063   -  ph: 04 1219 8888   - 
> onno at itmaze.com.au
>
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