¶A few links about the “open-source surplus”
2024-08-29
First is a post from Baldur Bjarnason:
The slow evaporation of the open-source surplus [Bjanrnason]
which contains links to these posts from Tara Tarakiyee and Ben Werdmuller:
Is the open source bubble about to burst? [Tarakiyee]
Is the open source bubble about to burst? [Werdmuller]
Baldur's worry is that there was a perfect storm of surpluses that led to the deep investment in and use of open-source software over the last couple of decades—and that we're entering a period where all of these surpluses are decreasing. In his mind, the best outcome is that there is just less investment in OSS moving forward; whereas the worst outcome would be that reduction investment combined with a decrease in trust causing the entire system to collapse.
Like many have recently, Tara touches on monetary investment and sustainability for open-source developers and maintainers. Ben expands on that and delivers what I think is the key line:
People won't pay for software that they don't need to pay for.
This echoes the Adam Jacob thread from earlier this week, which includes the line:
Under no circumstances give your product away for $0.
Ben surmises that open core might be the only feasible solution.