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   Chris Siebenmann (cks@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:29:04 JST Chris Siebenmann

   Some days, I wonder how many more years open source will last as a useful thing. My perception is that maintainers are aging, burdens are increasing, and liability pressures are going to show up sooner or later to put the final knife in.

   In ten years, will the Linux kernel, gcc, and so on be maintained almost entirely by people paid by their employer to do so? (Maybe this is already the case.)

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     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:41:09 JST Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     in reply to
     @cks For kernel I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of ones in the maintainers file are paid for their work, in fact I feel like Linux Foundation should at least provide some funding to them.
     
     And I kind of feel like hobbyist open-source is a cockroach, and all the "open-source is aging" things I've seen so far seem seriously subject to sample bias and more that the rock stars maintainers and their social-circle/community are aging.
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     Ben Zanin (gnomon@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:42:20 JST Ben Zanin

     in reply to

     @cks I don't think open source software will go away. The urge to tinker & share is too strong. FS/OSS might diverge from corporate/commercial interests again as the pendulum swings to & fro, but that might not even be a bad thing.

     I believe that open source will continue to exist as long as there is one 16 year old kid who wants a database of video game widgets, one gardener who wants a seasonal shade calculator, one scholar who needs timezone conversion data.

     The humanity will last.

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     Janne Moren (jannem@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:43:02 JST Janne Moren

     in reply to

     @cks
     Open source doesn't have to be unpaid work, and as you note it often isn't.

     One paid source people often overlook: academia. Many researchers write code as part of their work, and policies as well as academic traditions dictate that you make it available to others. Open source pretty much started in academia after all.

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     Chris Siebenmann (cks@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:43:02 JST Chris Siebenmann

     in reply to

     • Janne Moren

     @jannem As someone who works in academia (a sysadmin in a computer science department), I have to cough sadly. Most research code is not shared and also not usable, partly because it's not what graduate students and researchers are measured on and care about.

     (Grad students are measured on graduating with their degree and publications, researchers on publications and grants. Polishing software for release takes away from both sides of this. It happens, but.)

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     Chris Siebenmann (cks@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:45:13 JST Chris Siebenmann

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     • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     @lanodan I draw a distinction between 'open source' as a general thing, which (as you note) is a cockroach driven by people's urge to share and show cool things, and open source as a useful thing, more or less something you can confidently build on or use generally and which feels a bit precarious. 'I threw this thing out into the world' is eternal, 'I develop and keep maintaining this useful thing' maybe not so much, especially when it's big and important.

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     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:47:56 JST Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     in reply to
     @cks Well even the latter one is quite a cockroach even if it can be too much of a "works on my machine" at times, although interestingly I tend to see this trait more on corporate projects.
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     tusooa :Cat_girls_Emoji_004: 西风 (tusooa@kazv.moe)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 13:30:22 JST tusooa :Cat_girls_Emoji_004: 西风

     in reply to

     • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:
     @lanodan @cks New software will emerge, always.
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