HN Explorer

Ask HN: How does our industry value OSS projects?

5 points by sloppycee ↗ HN
Hey HN, I'm doing some research into how important OSS is to our industry, and how companies give back.

I've created a simple survey to get some data, to turn into a proper post. It should only take about 5 minutes to complete, and requires no private information to participate:

https://goo.gl/forms/4eWaiuTg2pmoVN1I3

Thanks!

8 comments

[ 132 ms ] story [ 283 ms ] thread
amackera
Interested to see the results from this, I know we use open source like crazy.
akulbe
I think, as a corporate culture, we find an immense value in it. We use open source stuff like crazy.

The problem I see is that, as that same corporate culture, we're not contributing back to the same projects we use code from so freely, at anywhere close to the same rate.

I asked about doing that, on one project I'm involved in, and was told not to get involved with OSS contributions, because of potential legal/liability issues.

It made me sad.

kluck
I had a very similar experience. In some companies I work at, it was/is even considered bad practise to use Free Software because it is believed to be more unstable. That is just a very broken attitude (one should always check if the actual requirements and available money for a software matches the features and costs of a given software, be it free or proprietary).
akulbe
While I am big on OSS, and giving back to the community... let's be realistic. Some of it really is bad.

There are definitely issues on some OSS projects, like inability to reach consensus, and some upstream devs doing things that break stuff for a large group of people, and not caring much about the consequences of some of the technical decisions made.

OSS is awesome, and can also be problematic, all at once. I'm not ready to dismiss it as a whole, though. Some orgs have that approach, and just throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think it's important to go in with your eyes open, and be aware of the potential risks.

amackera
For the stuff that IS good, and adding a lot of value, are the creators / maintainers recognized (other than through twitter followers, etc.)

What are we doing to keep the good projects afloat?

amackera
Is that also true for projects that have a commercial presence? I'm thinking like sentry.io.
willbenmitchell
Interesting. Do you think the legal/liability issue was the underlying reason, or that it was a smokescreen? I could easily see, in some corporate cultures, someone using that as an excuse because they didn't understand the value of giving back to OSS.
akulbe
I think it was legit. There are a few of us on the team that are very committed to OSS and giving back. They talked to legal, and legal shut it down. Can't go into too much detail, as I don't want to rock the boat, and this is my livelihood. You know... stuff like that. :)