Open source is a kind of post-scarcity economy. It's an economy of attention and status, and although money can be made in the process monetarism is relatively unimportant in comparison to the other factors.
I find it hard to understand how writing open source software has a strong value proposition for someone who isn't worried about "getting the next job" or "looking good in front of peers". For me, I believe the best use of those extra hours I have is to learn <i>entirely</i> new subject areas, not writing tests for code I don't care about, answering support or setting up documentation. I don't care if people know what I am doing, I'm not in it for the glory or whatnot.<p>Instead, over the last few years I have added two <i>entirely</i> new subjects to my repertoire (mathematical statistics and neuropsychology) to a level where I can read, critique and contribute to the latest research in the field. Over the next few years I plan on repeating this process with other subjects. Comparing this with writing more software <i>about things I already know</i> seems to me to be comparing progress with diminishing returns.<p>If you believe I'm wrong, I'd love to know why. Convince me there's value in opening up the 20+ projects sitting in my source control.
The quote from Newton is particularly apt. Open Source contribution is a lot like the collaborative/competitive model of scientific discourse that we've had since the Enlightenment. While that may make it sound academic, much of pre-20th Century science was carried out by amateurs, even by entrepreneurs. OS the new form of something quite old and very well-proven.
I open source because I enjoy it.<p>Why do I enjoy it? I dunno. I think that mostly it allows me to feel karmicly balanced. After all, it's open source technologies like Rails and jQuery that have allowed me to quit my job and work from my own sweet office doing as I please for the most part. Now I can give back, and maybe one day, one of my projects will help someone else do the same.<p>Also, writing open source projects feels kinda like the geek's ultimate networking tool. I came from the business side of things, and had started getting burned out on networking events. Contributing to open source projects helps me meet awesome like-minded developers from around the world and build productive relationships with them.<p><i>You tend to get feature requests, bug reports (with a surprising low level of accuracy) and emails of gratitude. But seldom do I receive ‘Here is patch that allows you to d x, y, and z ‘ emails.</i><p>This has been my experience exactly, with everything from my jQuery EasyTabs plugin, to the Remotipart gem, to the Rails jQuery UJS adapter. The bug/feature requests always outweigh the patches-with-tests by a factor of 10 to 1. This is usually when I have to start justifying the time in my mind with thoughts like, "it builds clout for the consultancy, just keep at it." The good news, is even the bug reports/feature requests make me feel good that at least people are using it.<p>Of course, the status and recognition are nice too. Coming from the non-coding side originally, it's nice to feel accepted by the community.
Why do I open source? Because of the licenses of the (freakin awesome) libs I'm using. Will commercialize the "add-on packages" (aka the Real Meat) later on though...<p>It's still all market-driven. 12+ years ago The Ecosystem for the majority of developers was MS-supplied. These days The Ecosystem is the open source web stack (or -- iOS). Back when MS provided "the grooviest platform", that's what coders built on. Now the grooviest platform is built by many indie lib coders, the majority of whom open source. Since it would be too cumbersome to strike individual commercial-licensing deals with them all, the path of least resistance is open-sourcing too. Then figure out commercializing via hosting services, support services, value-adding extra packages ... the whole freemium.
Why do so many people think of patents and copyright as capitalism? Patents are an artifice created by the government, distorting the natural incentives of a free-enterprising, free-contracting capitalist marketplace. I never understood the European brand of anarchism.<p>I'm genuinely interesting in understanding it, if there was anyone who wants to explain rather than just downvote.
Open source is devaluing developers' salaries.<p>Why would a company pay an engineer with a college degree to build something, when they can get it for free and hire a software mechanic to make changes? It also makes it much easier to farm jobs out to countries like India and the Philippines.