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Keep in mind that many of these corporate employed developers would likely contribute to the same OSS projects as a part of their job regardless of what company
by starefossen 8y ago
Keep in mind that many of these corporate employed developers would likely contribute to the same OSS projects as a part of their job regardless of what company they happen to be employed at.
- pests 8y agoI don't think this is true. First of all some workplaces won't allow it. Some companies don't even run on OSS. Some companies will work on it but not contribute back. Some companies won't have a budget to fund random / semi-related OSS project development.
- rossdavidh 8y agoThere are examples. For instance, both Linux (Linus Torvalds) and Python (Guido Rossum) have been steered by original contributors who changed employers several times, always still retaining their role as primary developer/coordinator for that open source project. Not saying it's the majority, but Linux and Python are two pretty important examples.
- yayana 8y agoThose aren't relevant examples for drawing a conclusion about the relationship between the average contributor to Linux or python and their employer.. Or for the lead of an average project and their employer.
- pests 8y agoYou made this point better than I could. If anything GP mentioning _important projects_ is by definition the exception.
- ghaff 8y agoThere are doubtless some prominent developers on a number of major open source projects who could find employment at a variety of companies without changing much about what they work on. They're a minority. Most companies expect developers to focus on what's important to their specific business and not what was important to their previous employer's business. They can't just work on whatever they feel like, especially on company time.