3 ms·

From the article: "But hardly any founder, VC, or big tech employee was aware of the issue, even when they used or benefitted directly from these projects." I

From the article: "But hardly any founder, VC, or big tech employee was aware of the issue, even when they used or benefitted directly from these projects." I just can't wrap my mind around this. As a former "big tech employee" and current founder I am constantly cognizant of the free software that shapes my working day and every solution I implement. From kernels and userspace tools to compilers and interpreters to IDEs and VCS to frameworks and protocols to online services and communication tools... it's nuts how much stuff we all use. I'm living on ramen now but one of my personal goals is to be successful enough to give back in a substantial way to these developers and projects that have been so instrumental to everything we're doing. Do people really take all this for granted? Are we as a community not doing a good enough job of teaching/explaining it?

freshhawk 11y ago
In my experience, hell yes this is taken for granted. Completely. "Open source" means "free stuff I take for granted" and the idea of contributing back in any way is viewed as a saintly contribution to a charity (or maybe a PR exercise).
adekok 11y ago
Absolutely, many non-engineers are unaware (or in denial) that they benefit from open source projects. In one previous company I worked at, a VP told me how terrible it was that an open source project was competing with them, and that open source (in general) was against capitalist principles. I had to explain very slowly that if he couldn't compete against an open source project... perhaps his company with tens of millions dollars in VC funding didn't deserve to succeed. And, that the company's product depended on using dozens of open source projects for free. Needless to say he wasn't pleased.
Beltiras 11y ago
On the average techies know and appreciate it. Business types and CXO's don't (by and large). I wanted a donation budget and my boss replied "what do we get for that?". I explained, after picking my jaw off the floor. No budget thou.....

freshhawk 11y ago

In my experience, hell yes this is taken for granted. Completely. "Open source" means "free stuff I take for granted" and the idea of contributing back in any way is viewed as a saintly contribution to a charity (or maybe a PR exercise).

adekok 11y ago

Absolutely, many non-engineers are unaware (or in denial) that they benefit from open source projects. In one previous company I worked at, a VP told me how terrible it was that an open source project was competing with them, and that open source (in general) was against capitalist principles. I had to explain very slowly that if he couldn't compete against an open source project... perhaps his company with tens of millions dollars in VC funding didn't deserve to succeed. And, that the company's product depended on using dozens of open source projects for free. Needless to say he wasn't pleased.

Beltiras 11y ago

On the average techies know and appreciate it. Business types and CXO's don't (by and large). I wanted a donation budget and my boss replied "what do we get for that?". I explained, after picking my jaw off the floor. No budget thou.....