- so how can you make money using OSS?
- you need to build the right product, and get it into the hands of the right people
- opening up code is still an enabler to move faster yourself, but can also help others faster
- but tradeoffs still the same (code expertise is needed)
- they can undercut you, but they may not have the legitimacy
- massive commodization, whether open or closed
- last few decades, already saw better languages, runtimes, UI frameworks, etc to help us build better software, faster (a couple examples: Ruby on Rails for web, Golang for cloud)
- I think the more interesting conversation is about what is happening to software copyright. courts are still figuring it out. but it’s pretty clear copyright (and particularly when applied to code) is under a lot of pressure. if you can’t uphold copyright, than all attempts to release code under a license becomes moot, as it becomes effectively public domain code. i am still trying to wrap my head around what this means, but it seems to re-enforce even more the idea that it’s all about execution, GTM, branding, etc, trust
- the ratio shift.
- it was already true that for most COSS companies, staff engineers made more significant core/visionary code changes that required expertise, time and coordination. whereas community members would come up with extra features, tweaks, fill in gaps, fix some bugs, etc
- Now, everyone is more empowered to write (more,better,faster) code, by the same amount. which means:
- either community gets more involved in a strategic level. more coordination overhead. works better for small/lifestyle companies that have key community members but not the budget to hire them. I think we will see more smaller companies, both in and outside of open source.
- employees outpace community even more
- when publishing source code, you (can) get more contributions
- but also empowers more, they can learn faster, duplicate, safer/cheaper to self-host
- the ratio of upside vs downside changes
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