45
Drew DeVault: So you want to compete with or replace open source
(drewdevault.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
45 points (94.1% liked)
Open Source
30919 readers
660 users here now
All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!
Useful Links
- Open Source Initiative
- Free Software Foundation
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Software Freedom Conservancy
- It's FOSS
- Android FOSS Apps Megathread
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
- !libre_culture@lemmy.ml
- !libre_software@lemmy.ml
- !libre_hardware@lemmy.ml
- !linux@lemmy.ml
- !technology@lemmy.ml
Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I don't find myself disagreeing with anything they said.
But I think the key reason open source persists, is its availability. Even if it's not the best software, it's available in 5 years, in 10 years, and 15 years. So many companies outcompete open source projects, and then die on the vine, and disappear. They never get to actually compete in the evolution of the software.
For all of open source's faults, it's available, so it can evolve over time, it is persistent.
Someone described open source as the commons of capital and I guess that’s not entirely incorrect. The availability of boring things like server operating systems, encryption libraries, etc, cheapens many commodities to the point where they are viable because people can afford them. Imagine the price of whatever IoT trinket is in vogue if the maker had to roll every software it touches from scratch.