4 ms·

I think this is the biggest loss we've had in the past 20 years. The takeover of open source by "professionals" has lowered the diversity of perspectives in ope

I think this is the biggest loss we've had in the past 20 years. The takeover of open source by "professionals" has lowered the diversity of perspectives in open source. Some of the most renowned folks from my generation or the one before me are not professional software engineers. And those people were the ones that valued Free Software more than the ones who are professional software engineers. I often wonder if this is one of the bigger reasons why FOSS is doing so much worse these days.

jhoechtl 6y ago
Yes,yes, yes. Is it a cultural thing why this gets lost? Is it the abscence of an enemy (Microsoft?)? Is it the cultivatism of kids today who are willing to pay for the download while 20 years ago Napster boomed? Is it the everything can be monetized and professionalized attitute vs. amateurism? I truly wonder. I am 45 and I experienced the net and hackerism of 20 years ago as a wonderful world which it is no more today and I can't really say why.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  Perhaps it has to do with the rise of the "precariat"? Younger nerds are more worried about trying to survive than hacking Free Software for fun? It is often claimed that basic income would give a boost to such volunteering.
- mook 6y ago
  I don't think it's that it got lost, but rather that a lot more money got into open source development. While I was at school I was really interested in hacking on Mozilla, where they were espousing ideals about meritocracy. After a while I realized that it really mean the folks they employed to work on Firefox had all the power, simply because they had more hours per day changing everything so casual contributors couldn't keep up. It made sense for them, of course, since they can't hire that many people and just have them sit on their thumbs all day.

4 ms·

I think this is the biggest loss we've had in the past 20 years. The takeover of open source by "professionals" has lowered the diversity of perspectives in ope

by Conan_Kudo 6y ago

jhoechtl 6y ago
Yes,yes, yes. Is it a cultural thing why this gets lost? Is it the abscence of an enemy (Microsoft?)? Is it the cultivatism of kids today who are willing to pay for the download while 20 years ago Napster boomed? Is it the everything can be monetized and professionalized attitute vs. amateurism? I truly wonder. I am 45 and I experienced the net and hackerism of 20 years ago as a wonderful world which it is no more today and I can't really say why.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  Perhaps it has to do with the rise of the "precariat"? Younger nerds are more worried about trying to survive than hacking Free Software for fun? It is often claimed that basic income would give a boost to such volunteering.
- mook 6y ago
  I don't think it's that it got lost, but rather that a lot more money got into open source development. While I was at school I was really interested in hacking on Mozilla, where they were espousing ideals about meritocracy. After a while I realized that it really mean the folks they employed to work on Firefox had all the power, simply because they had more hours per day changing everything so casual contributors couldn't keep up. It made sense for them, of course, since they can't hire that many people and just have them sit on their thumbs all day.