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> Given then, that there's very little upside to doing open source, and most/all the benefits go to profit-making corporations I partially disagree. Yes, the b

by antpls 7y ago

> Given then, that there's very little upside to doing open source, and most/all the benefits go to profit-making corporations I partially disagree. Yes, the benefit will not be fairly shared. However, the volunteers' works accelerate entreprises' works, which can then provide new services and new products faster. Imagine some ML algorithms could find the cure to aging. You have two options : either wait that some company develops it, but you might be dead by then, or accerelate the process by open sourcing your code and hopefully get the companies closer to this goal. Now, that doesn't mean you will be able to access that cure if a company finally finds it and decides to sell it, but you increase the odds that something might be discovered. It's like giving $1000 to charity, but with the scale of software, your coded contribution can have way more impact than $1000 on the world.

ewzimm 7y ago
Thanks for pointing this out. The quoted statement is only true if "benefit" is restricted to meaning "financial benefit." In whatever people do, not just in software, most of the financial benefit goes to profit-making companies because everything they do is directed toward making profits. But what about the unquantifiable benefits that come from improving people's lives? How would you weigh the benefits of millions of people using and loving a piece of software, even if no profits are generated? What if they are able to free up time which they use to improve their communities, spend more time with their friends and family, maybe even make money for themselves?
- em-bee 7y ago
  in the same vein i disagree with people who complain about freeloaders who use Free Software and don't seem to give anything back. in reality we do not know how they give back to society. they might be doing many of those things that you mention that i as the developer of the software can not see.

by antpls 7y ago

ewzimm 7y ago

Thanks for pointing this out. The quoted statement is only true if "benefit" is restricted to meaning "financial benefit." In whatever people do, not just in software, most of the financial benefit goes to profit-making companies because everything they do is directed toward making profits. But what about the unquantifiable benefits that come from improving people's lives? How would you weigh the benefits of millions of people using and loving a piece of software, even if no profits are generated? What if they are able to free up time which they use to improve their communities, spend more time with their friends and family, maybe even make money for themselves?

em-bee 7y ago
in the same vein i disagree with people who complain about freeloaders who use Free Software and don't seem to give anything back. in reality we do not know how they give back to society. they might be doing many of those things that you mention that i as the developer of the software can not see.