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You know this kind of goes right to the heart of the issue. The cloud providers are packaging up open source software into higher level services that have value

You know this kind of goes right to the heart of the issue. The cloud providers are packaging up open source software into higher level services that have value... just like FB and twitter and everyone else that provides a service that we couldn't have dreamed up 30 years ago. Back in the 80's when I started in this business there were paywalls around every algorithmic implementation of an idea, and before too long there were patents standing on those paywalls defending them. The very idea of open source (to which I was a late convert, so treat me like a reformed smoker here) is the opposite. It unleashed a torrent of innovation _because_ it treated specific algorithmic implementations of ideas as a common resource. To make money you had to come up with something bigger, something more significant to the world than a new key/value store. It's hard to make money off of infrastructure software because the very philosophical foundation of the open source idea is that infrastructure software should be free, so greater ideas can more easily take flight.

mikekchar 8y ago
> the very philosophical foundation of the open source idea is that infrastructure software should be free, so greater ideas can more easily take flight. This is true from a "free as in freedom" perspective, but isn't limited to infrastructure software. The idea is that all software should be free (as in freedom) so that greater ideas can more easily take flight. In reality, once people started understanding some of the open source (as opposed to free software) ideas, infrastructure lost it's value. We all need infrastructure. For example, as great as Redis is, there are many companies who could build it. And if Redis goes proprietary, somebody will take over (and will probably hire antirez away from RedisLabs). The costs are not actually that large and the benefits are too big. Think about Facebook for a minute. It was not that long ago that no reasonable developer would consider working there. React comes out. Suddenly, everybody and their dog wants to work for Facebook. Let me reiterate: Facebook -- one of the most hated companies in all of high tech. Sure you could sell React, but for what? A handful of cash at best. Actually, if you put a proprietary license on that thing, nobody would touch it with a 10 foot pole. But you bet they'd rewrite it. And share it. Even the smallish company I do work for is keen to release open source software -- we just haven't built anything compelling yet. If we had the need for some cool infrastructure that nobody has built yet, you bet we'd build it. And share it. So while we all need infrastructure, we can all build infrastructure. All of us. And we will (good grief -- look at all those insane frameworks :-P). It's cheaper than chips. That's why you can't sell it.

mikekchar 8y ago

> the very philosophical foundation of the open source idea is that infrastructure software should be free, so greater ideas can more easily take flight. This is true from a "free as in freedom" perspective, but isn't limited to infrastructure software. The idea is that all software should be free (as in freedom) so that greater ideas can more easily take flight. In reality, once people started understanding some of the open source (as opposed to free software) ideas, infrastructure lost it's value. We all need infrastructure. For example, as great as Redis is, there are many companies who could build it. And if Redis goes proprietary, somebody will take over (and will probably hire antirez away from RedisLabs). The costs are not actually that large and the benefits are too big. Think about Facebook for a minute. It was not that long ago that no reasonable developer would consider working there. React comes out. Suddenly, everybody and their dog wants to work for Facebook. Let me reiterate: Facebook -- one of the most hated companies in all of high tech. Sure you could sell React, but for what? A handful of cash at best. Actually, if you put a proprietary license on that thing, nobody would touch it with a 10 foot pole. But you bet they'd rewrite it. And share it. Even the smallish company I do work for is keen to release open source software -- we just haven't built anything compelling yet. If we had the need for some cool infrastructure that nobody has built yet, you bet we'd build it. And share it. So while we all need infrastructure, we can all build infrastructure. All of us. And we will (good grief -- look at all those insane frameworks :-P). It's cheaper than chips. That's why you can't sell it.