[Cialug] open source drying up?

Josh More MoreJ at alliancetechnologies.net
Wed Jul 27 12:42:32 CDT 2011


I see the opposite.  As layoffs occur, the number of people available to work on projects increases, as they have more time at home.  In the last two years, the amount of development in the open source security space has been astounding.  Sadly, so have the number of breaches.  People will use their time as they like.

What I think is going on in the "mainstream" open source space is that we've reached "good enough" in many projects, so these open source technologies are no longer a source of disruption and are, instead, being disrupted by newer technologies being built faster and cheaper.  Thus, projects are giving way to services and apps.

If you are interested in this stuff, I strongly recommend reading "The Innovator's Solution".  It will change the way you think about the world.



Josh More | Senior Security Consultant - CISSP, GIAC-GSLC Gold, GIAC-GCIH
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________________________________
From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [cialug-bounces at cialug.org] on behalf of Matthew Nuzum [newz at bearfruit.org]
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 12:04
To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
Subject: Re: [Cialug] open source drying up?

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 11:22 AM, Nathan C. Smith <nathan.smith at ipmvs.com<mailto:nathan.smith at ipmvs.com>> wrote:

I just wanted to float an idea and see if anyone had thoughts or different perspectives on this.

I propose that sometime after 2008, when the recession took hold, the number of people available to work on open source projects started to decrease as companies went through layoffs and had to do more with less people.

It has been observed at several open source projects' communities have plateaued, in the sense that they're only replacing contributors at about the same rate that people are leaving. (It's pretty typical for there to be churn in the communities btw)

There have been a lot of suggestions why this might be happening.


 I might also suggest that company or foundation supported open-source projects are the ones in making headway and in the limelight now with less "garage-type" projects growing into notoriety.


I'm not sure I agree with this one. I can say from experience that even bigger projects are feeling it. (maybe Chris can speak from an Apache perspective)

I *think* (no numbers to back this up) that garage type projects will be the last to suffer. I expect that such projects are fueled by people who are scratching an itch. I honestly don't think more big projects make for fewer itches.

When I first tried out Mac OS I thought, "wow, the community around this really encourages developers to keep their source closed and sell their widgets." It was so very different than the Linux community where developers are encouraged to work in the open and share with each other.

Apple's products and influence have increased. I wonder if they rise of the $0.99 app is influencing things.

--
Matthew Nuzum
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♫ You're never fully dressed without a smile! ♫

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