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I think those who care about things being open-source care deeply about it and it is an issue that will make them avoid something. However, that is a very small

I think those who care about things being open-source care deeply about it and it is an issue that will make them avoid something. However, that is a very small group of people even in the tech world it's pretty small. Businesses don't care if you're source-available or open-source and decision-makers often won't know the difference. Generally, people looking for open-source are just looking for something free they can use/self-host.

motoxpro 2y ago
I agree with this fully. There is a small sweet-spot of people who are doing hobby projects or have SMB tech companies to where a project being open source matters. Note: this is much different from infra being open (React, Linux, etc). People talk about lock in but it's way cheaper to migrate to a different solution than to maintain an entire product of it becomes unmaintained (i.e. an "open source Stripe" where you have to keep up with compliance) I understand that the visibility causes better security but there is no guarantee that the hosted version is using that code. Many billion-dollar companies barely have in-house web developers, let alone someone who can set up a K8s instance or a Hetzner server. "Little tech" is just such small portion of the economy.
OccamsMirror 2y ago
As a decision-maker I care if something is open source or not. Because if it is, I can always fork it and maintain my own version if absolutely necessary. Not something I ever want us having to do but knowing the option is there is huge. I don't want to be beholden to another corporation that could pull the rug out from under me. Open source software gives me that comfort.
- that_guy_iain 2y ago
  I did say "often won't know the difference" and didn't make an absolutist statement. And your comment basic confirms what I said, those who care care deeply and it's an issue they'll walk away from. But as I said, it's a very small niche.

motoxpro 2y ago

I agree with this fully. There is a small sweet-spot of people who are doing hobby projects or have SMB tech companies to where a project being open source matters. Note: this is much different from infra being open (React, Linux, etc). People talk about lock in but it's way cheaper to migrate to a different solution than to maintain an entire product of it becomes unmaintained (i.e. an "open source Stripe" where you have to keep up with compliance) I understand that the visibility causes better security but there is no guarantee that the hosted version is using that code. Many billion-dollar companies barely have in-house web developers, let alone someone who can set up a K8s instance or a Hetzner server. "Little tech" is just such small portion of the economy.

OccamsMirror 2y ago

As a decision-maker I care if something is open source or not. Because if it is, I can always fork it and maintain my own version if absolutely necessary. Not something I ever want us having to do but knowing the option is there is huge. I don't want to be beholden to another corporation that could pull the rug out from under me. Open source software gives me that comfort.

that_guy_iain 2y ago
I did say "often won't know the difference" and didn't make an absolutist statement. And your comment basic confirms what I said, those who care care deeply and it's an issue they'll walk away from. But as I said, it's a very small niche.