I don’t get why big companys are afraid of open source software.

I know that monetizing open source is hard but in exchange they would have 8 billion programmers ready, for free!

Even if they do like redhat , as controversial as it is right now, they would be better off than just closing the source.

I would be willing to pay to have the license to modify my own software even if I couldn’t redistribute it afterwards.

  • itchychips
    1·
    1 year ago

    I personally think the best way to do open source is to do it as a hobby, and not hope for profits off of it. Open source is fundamentally programmers taking control of their field’s means of production, and the last thing I want to see is corporations co-opting that moreso than they have.

    This is the main reason everything I release is AGPL unless there is a strong reason against it: Corporations won’t use it.

      • itchychipsEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Don’t get me wrong, I know why you are writing this, I know where you come from; but the binary “nothing or profits” view is the first problematic point.

        The thing is, you don’t know why I’m writing this. I wrote that, because I believe profit motive is a bad idea, and we should move beyond trying to ensure we can profit off of every little thing. It’s not either-or, it’s a criticism borne of my experience and observations with the current economic systems that ensure people starve.

        People and companies under our current system have been trying to sustainably profit off of open source, and while a few have succeeded, many have failed.

        I’ll stop being “petty” against corporations when profit isn’t more important than human lives (spoiler: It ain’t petty, and I’m not going to let my work become exploited).