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> This so-called "competition" from open source is going to be free labor. Any winning idea ported into Google's products on short notice. Thanks open source!

How else, exactly, is open source supposed to work? Nobody wants to make their code GPL but everybody complains when companies use their code. I get that open source projects will like companies to contribute back, but shouldn't that go for everyone using this code? Like, I don't get what the proposed way of working is here.



Developers nowadays want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to develop FOSS code because capitalism is evil and proprietary software is immoral and Micro$oft is the devil, man, and so give their work away for free... but whenever a company makes money on it and gives nothing back, completely in line with the letter and spirit of FOSS (because requiring compensation would violate user freedom,) they also want to get paid.

Like the entire premise of FOSS is that money doesn't matter, only freedom matters. You're not supposed to care that Google made a billion dollars off your library as long as they keep it open.


I see this as part of the decline of hacker culture and rise of brogrammers. I see very few people programming for fun, everyone seems to be looking for a monetization opportunity for every breath they take.


For some strange reason (maybe moral failure?) people seem to have this insatiable addiction to food and shelter and most people have found no better way to support that addiction than to exchange labor for money.

The list of things I consider “fun” besides programming when I get off work is a mile long.


Then don't do open source work. You can't be donating your work under a permissive license and then complain that someone else used it. Make up your mind.

Edit: also please gtfo with your condescending tone. Everyone needs to eat and most people are working class. Don't act like you are the only one who has a unique experience of hunger and thirst.


The initial post I was replying to was:

>I see very few people programming for fun, everyone seems to be looking for a monetization opportunity for every breath they take.

So yes, thinking that most developers are going to do it for “fun” after working 40 hours a week is kind of naive.


All I said was it used it happen more before and now it happens less. I never made any comments about what quantity does it. And it's not even about that. The culture has gone from earn to live to live to earn and not just in programming.


I’ve been in this field professionally for over 25 years. There has never been a time where people weren’t interested in making the most money possible given their skillset and opportunity.

Or are you saying in some distant past that people did it for the love? I was a junior in high school when Linux was introduced and I was on Usenet by 1993 in the comp.lang.* groups.

The “culture” hasn’t changed - just the opportunities.


When linux was introduced in that group majority of the posts weren't asking how to make money from it. That's the difference. Try hanging out in langchain and openAI discords. You will see the difference.


free as freedom, but not free as beer?


That actually favors corporations more. I'm a FOSS advocate today because cricket bats costed money but Ruby was free, so I learned that.




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