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Thursday January 22, 2004

Poor Open Source Developers

Richard seems to think that most open source developers are like starving artists:

While a few make really good money selling consulting and training and other services, the vast majority of open source developers don't make anything.

For some reason, I don't believe this. The open source projects I participate in, as well as the ones I admire and use - all seem to have developers that are gainfully employed and making money. Of course, this may just be a Java open source phenomenon.

To do open source, you have to have a day job. You can't expect open source to feed your family or even your cat for that matter. As I said there are exceptions, but most open source developers do it for the love of writing software. While commercial software developers do a great job of feeding their families, open source developers do a better job of feeding their minds. In the end, you have to ask yourself which is more important: The things you own or freedoms you have.

Very good points. I dig working on AppFuse, as well as Roller, Struts Menu, and the Display Tag because I can do whatever I want. I can implement silly features like Clickstream and I don't have to ask anyone if it's a good idea (I'm still debating this).

Back to my point though. I firmly believe that most Java Open Source Developers are gainfully employed and not starving artists. Part of this comes from the fact that most of the big projects I work with (i.e. Struts and Hibernate) have some smart folks on staff, and the popularity of their projects has provided them with more opportunity, hence they're employed.

Personally, I do open source because I want to learn. I want to write code that gets scrutinized by the masses. As an independent consultant, I rarely get another person looking at my code - so I turn to the community by opening my code (that I use on a daily basis) to other developers. Overall, having others look at my code has resulted in much higher quality software for my clients, and has helped me learn a lot in the process as well.

I also look at open source development as a good marketing campaign - here's what I can do, hire me. This has proved very successful so far. Hence, my formula: Open Source Development = good marketing = gainful employment.

Posted in Java at Jan 22 2004, 06:42:57 AM MST 4 Comments
Comments:

If you are unemployed, will you still be an open source developer?

Posted by Harod Ruthgar on January 22, 2004 at 02:19 PM MST #

Definitely - it's one of the best way to keep my skills sharp while I'm looking for my next gig. What else am I gonna do, sit around and watch TV? ;-)

Posted by Matt Raible on January 22, 2004 at 02:23 PM MST #

:) I assume you have enough savings and your wife is understanding. Won't you stop open source coding and take whatever job you can when things become very tough? I think the formula is the other way around, gainful employment = open source development = good marketing. I'm not going to risk my family's wellbeing by putting gainful employment at the end of the formula.

Posted by Harod Ruthgar on January 22, 2004 at 10:35 PM MST #

<em>> Won't you stop open source coding and take whatever job you can when things become very tough?</em>

I only do open source development a few hours a week, so it's not something that I have to give up just because I'm looking for a job full time. But yes, if I were out of a job, my priorities would certainly shift and it would become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, my wife is very understanding, but she worries about me not having a job more than I do. The first time I ever got laid off, she almost had a heart attack - but now that it's happened a few times, she's much cooler about it. Every marriage should have to go through a layoff - it really brings out the true person you married. ;-)

Posted by Matt Raible on January 22, 2004 at 10:45 PM MST #

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