The problem with Open Source, in 2025

#opensource #programming #learning #webdev

Name 5 Open Source tools that you use, you can't say Git or VS code. Most people can't name anything now. They forget their browser (if chromium) and their mobile software (if android). But let's remove that as well. Name 5 Open Source tools that you actually use daily that aren't the standard.

GSOC is not a good thing, it used to be, but now it's the worst thing for open source in my belief.

Now that I have made 2 very hot takes. I'd like to share my story to explain them.

I started development approximately 1 year back in March 2024. I was a 3rd year BTech student, who only knew C++ and somewhat DSA. I couldn't develop anything. Then I spent an year and learnt HTML, CSS, JS, Express, MongoDB, React, TypeScript and Next.js. Also learnt tools like Git and Postman. Did I become a good developer? Depends on who you ask.

I made a project for a college completely solo. It was their grievance portal. Made it in Next.js, made it as securely as possible. I made a CLI in TS. I also made an AI project in Next.js in just 6 hours which was my college minor project.

I am not a good developer. I am not even decent developer according to me.

This is pointless. Because I wanted to do open source and I couldn't...

I tried to take part in some open source project for GSOC but I just couldn't do it.

I joined two projects. I connected with people. I picked up issues. I understood the issues. But I never felt like I wanted to fix them. Every time I used to sit to fix them, I started making something of my own with the knowledge I got from that repository.

This was strange. I was coding, but I just didn't feel like coding for those other people. A tool I have no information about and the entire task is to fix the given issue. How do you make something better when you don't use it?

Now the tools I took part in were: A JS framework and a chat application. Both were pretty awesome projects. But I used React and I hadn't learnt everything in it, I had barely learnt it before switching to Next.js, which again I had not learnt a lot. And why would I need a chat application? My friends weren't gonna use this slack like app.

So I was supposed to fix something, I had never used. I wasn't motivated to do it. And this is where most software engineers make a grave mistake. They don't use the tool themselves, they just fix it. They'll always submit PRs but never create issues.

You guys have killed Open Source and made it a job.

It is my belief that open source is not about the product but more about the community, more about the power. You think Linus Torvalds created Git so that he could get a job? He created it because he needed it. Later when people realized it has scalability issues, they came and fixed it because they needed that tool.

But this didn't mean I quit being near Open Source, I instead fixed the problem. The problem was that I wasn't motivated to work on something I would never use (and also not get any incentive for it, like you know a salary).

I started using Open Source more and more. My IDE is Neovim, which is completely community dominated and involves no corporation with the ability to make it's extension market place inaccessible if my agentic AI version of their IDE has huge valuation.

I am shifting to Linux (I use Arch btw) but that's mostly because Windows is so bad and slow.

I keep forking OS tools and reading about them. I don't have the need to use all those tools but I stay aware about them more than I was before. If one day, I do need to use them, I'll always have the sense of security that if I want to I could change this software.

If you are doing open source because you want to be in GSOC or LFX and you never think about making your own tools better, I would say, don't do it. Just do a job instead.

My 5 Open Source Tools (that I know about or use):