Zsolt Kiss
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

I completely disagree. “Developing open source software is not a public good.” What?? I use open source software every day (as a software developer), although I work for a company (which does not open its source, but I don’t really care.) I (can) see the source of every library or framework we are using, and quite a lot of times I discover functionality not documented or bugs what I can fix. What’s the alternative? To use proprietary software, like a black box, then fill in tickets and be dependent on the merci of the customer service and the developers of one company trying to cope with the miriad of issues users worldwide encountered? That’s not what you are aiming for.

I am using Linux everywhere (because I feel comfortable and secure.) I put a version to my wife’s computer as well (she is an artist, not techy at all), and she is also very happy. Otherwise we had to buy (at least) 2 licenses of Windows (or iOS, of course;), and pay also a fortune for the MS Office (I know that some people will object here ;), or get some cracked licenses, like it is still customary in some parts of the world. Then wait hours for the system to “update” itself — and you cannot do anything. And for what? Linux people can only laugh at such things…

I could give a lot of examples here.

The fact that (a few) top tech companies are using OSS, or more exactly they have built their systems on open source does not imply that “Open source software is not a public good.” They have strived because of their work and competency, to know what to do with the ocean of OSS. Anybody could do what they have done -in principle, at least. And they have done something for the community. Look at the pletora of new languages (!) and frameworks Google has developed, and made public, for example. (Microsoft also seems to be a good contributor, btw.) I don’t get what is wrong with this.

Or think what would happened with the Internet, if their open standards did not exist? We would not have email, between else. We would have some Compuserve style services on subscription… Etc.

So, I don’t think that “Developing open source software is not a public good.”