hello world! ๐
This is my first #discuss thread and I want it to be on something relevant rather than "Which IDE color scheme does devs like?". This went a little bit lengthy than my usual articles but I think it's okay.
Itโs been a while since I've written something here, but I donโt want to write articles for the sake of โkeeping the blog aliveโ, screw that.
Last week, I came across an article "GitHub stars wonโt pay your rent". If you haven't read that yet I'll give a TLDR; It is about how Kitze (author of Sizzy) turned his OSS project Sizzy into a profitable business.
What made me curious is the title "GitHub stars wonโt pay your rent" and I think it is funny because it is true ๐.
Dear devs, we've been there. 99% of us literally received 0 (zero) amount of money doing open source projects.
This is because people misunderstand how open source works all the time, and we aren't any different.
If you want to make people pay for software that already exists, then the only realistic way is mild extortion, and that means a proprietary license.
But the whole idea of free software is that once the software exists, it "belongs" to everyone (in the sense that every single person on the planet is free to use it, inspect it, modify it, and share it). You can ask people to pay for it, but why would they? It's already "theirs", it already exists, paying for it can never be anything but a courtesy to anyone who already sank time into it. This is why donation-based projects are struggling: you're asking people to pay for something they already have.
However, when it comes to making people pay for software that doesn't exist yet, things look very different. Plenty of people and companies do, in fact, spend considerable amounts of money on making software exist that they need to exist. This is how the majority of serious open source projects get funded.
Take, for example, Firefox. Regardless of what the Mozilla Foundation's marketing copy says, it does not exist because a bunch of philanthropists decided they need to make the world a little better - the only reason the project is viable is because Google (and a few other companies) massively benefit from its existence, and hence pump substantial amounts of money into its development.
Or take Linux (the kernel, that is). Thousands of companies worldwide benefit from the existence of a free, tinkerable kernel, for all sorts of reasons: cloud hosting providers benefit because it makes their operation affordable for the masses, server hardware manufacturers benefit because it increases the customer surplus (money not spent on OS licenses can be spent on hardware instead), consultancy firms benefit because they can now sell support contracts for an OS that they can control but don't have to maintain themselves, research facilities benefit from not having to develop a custom kernel for their supercomputing clusters, etc. So all these entities help fund kernel development.
Another model is for companies to pay for desirable features, basically using their money to vote on the future direction of a project. Apart from the scope, this is essentially the same payment model though.
There are plenty of ways to get paid for your work, the proprietary model is just one of them.
Open source IS NOT A BUSINESS plan.
It is a DISTRIBUTION plan. You DISTRIBUTE using open source. You need to ATTACH A BUSINESS PLAN to your DISTRIBUTION plan.
However, because code IS the most valuable byproduct of a developer give away code is give away the MOST valuable asset. Is like a chef giving away the meals ie: Is not just the receipts is the full meal. Code is not just a description by mean of cheap building is the END product.
Why you will pay the chef if he already give you the food? And the way to have the food without the chef?
Open source is a very idiotic business plan WITHOUT a seriously extra advantage. In the case of single/small team of developers is the worst possible business to have: Everyone that is claimed to make money with open source have a BIG extra thing as side that is so valuable that the value of code become irrelevant.
Think like restaurant where all the food is free. 100% total free. BUT here is where the most popular actors are. Have a photo with them cost $$$$. In this convoluted scenario the popular actor are the BIG thing that this place have that is much more valuable than the food.
โBut now you are a street food seller and give the food for free. And in you place no one of notoriety visit and you don't have anything of value worth a damn.
Obviously you will say that guy is a idiot.
That is the same of open source: Apart of your code what exactly can you give? That TRULY is big enough?
4 weeks back, I published hoppscotch.io and I open sourced it on GitHub so everyone can use it and contribute. People loved it. The project received 15k+ stars. Became the #2 product of the day on Product Hunt. The analytics were going crazy. I couldnโt believe what was going on.
I'm closing in on 30 public, nontrivial non forked repos on GitHub. Since GitHub's inception, I've received a total of $200 in donations for my OSS projects and many job offers from people who are familiar with my work. I don't make money off OSS, and never have (at least not directly).
But I just. can't. stop.
I can't. I've tried suppressing the urge to create, but I just can't do it. Ideas, challenges, problems, unmet potential, are everywhere, and I can't unsee them. On many days I despair that I won't live long enough to build even a tiny fraction of the things I see in my mind. It's infuriating!
And so I do my best to keep my focus small. I have a full time job, so I try to keep my extracurricular coding down to at the very most 3 hours a day if I can, but my idea list just keeps on growing faster than I can keep up.
I keep thinking that maybe I'll calm down as I get older, but I started at 8, and I'm 23 now. If I had no financial pressure at all, I'd be doing this stuff all day. The only difference would be that I'd burn through my list faster.
But long story short, don't write OSS for money. Have a full time job and do OSS on the side.
If you want a heads up on my next projects, or just want to chat about the web, make sure to follow me on Twitter @liyasthomas ๐. If any of my projects helped you please consider making a small donation on PayPal.
Oldest comments (96)
This shook me, I love your enthusiasm for creating mate, keep it up.
Make beautiful things.
That's the same thing as I'm doing.I have a full time job and a side project that I really enjoy doing. While I would love to see it become profitable I don't have any expectation.
๐
Thanks Liyas for starting this topic.
I was once looking for an open source license that says:
Apparently, OSS never works that way... it's free in essence.
So the way to go is to launch a premium service for highly desirable features.
I don't know why the author of Sizzy has bitter feelings about the experience of publishing his tool as an OSS:
If he can't see all that as a positive experience, I don't know what to say!
Afterall, contributing to OSS community is a free will. No one's gonna force you to do anyways. But what I must say is that, all things premium/paid kinda services are made because of open source projects.
What if all npm packages were paid services..? I can't even imagine what would've happened! No one will ever make a facebook, twitter, google, and nothing.
I enjoy reading about your enthusiasm.
I have a slightly different problem - I have come up with some ideas in my past, and have started building them. I will investigate, try out new languages to solve the problem, but as soon as I have figured out my roadmap for solving the problem, I lose all interest.
I think it comes from the fact that I created many web-based projects when I was younger. So once I feel a "deja vu" kind of feeling, I gradually lose interest, because I've done it so many times before and don't get paid for it.
I am still waiting for that "omg I need this" idea to come forward and really stick :P
Anyways, I enjoyed the article. Thumbs up :)
Trust me my friend, this happens to all. But do you know how I find motive to continue working on existing or new projects..?
It's because I believe "motivation is a choice."
Don't wait for that motivational quote to read, or that youtube video to boost your self confidence or that advice from a great personality.. Take responsibility and make things. Motivation is a choice.
That is true. I used to be able to keep the interest, and have made my own lightweight social network for a school I went to when I was younger.
However, now that I have tried that many times, I like the technical challenges like algorithm solving more than I like making a complete usable product :)
You'll grow everyday โจ
I could be motivated to work on something like this ... maybe:
"motivational products don't work. but our demotivator products don't work even better."
What a thinking, mindblowing haaaa
You sound like me. You enjoy the chase of the solution. Almost like a scientist. We crave the incomplete puzzle in front of us. And the less we see of the 'completed picture's from the start, the bigger the craving.
Yes! I like the technical side of it. How do I solve X in programming language Y? I was also playing with GPIO using Go on Raspberry Pi. As soon as I found a package, it turned a little boring. So I think my next project will be to manage the GPIO using /dev/mem or something even lower level, just for the challenge.
Like minded people are AWESOME โจ
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Is the problem you're trying to solve not something you experience on your own? I've found being motivated to do something that other people might find useful doesn't come close to doing something that you will find usefulโโand others (optionally) when you open-source your solution.
Exactly this! It doesn't need to be anything complex, you could maybe think about something trivial you regularly do to automate and grow from there?
Building things that ease up my works is as heavenly as stuffs other people find useful.
I have been working on a project that was born out of a need me and my girlfriend had. But after working on it for a few months it died out. I have thought about catching up on it again :)
I have sort of the same problem, Dennis.
Try starting the project well before you've solved the problems. Just start. Literally anywhere except for the algorithmic or new-skill parts.
Start in the middle. Start with the tests. Start with a command line app. Start with a UI. Whatever.
Since the enjoyment for you lies in solving the juiciest problems, do the parts of the work that are trivial FIRST and save your dessert for last.
Good suggestion. Will definitely try something like this for my next project! Maybe even on my current project that I have stalled. Try to reopen it and take this approach. Thanks :)
Go for it my friend
It's very cool how you have such a strong inate drive to create. If 10% more people had the same urge and thought process as you, the world would be a much better place.
Thanks for your kind words!
"be the change you want to see"
-Gandhi
I can definitely relate to this. When one of my repo crossed about 5k stars (now 8k+), I put up donation links and received from only one person (which had to stop in the middle due to payment gateway changes) and then nothing at all since. My repos are learning resources than software, so that might have played a role too.
Somehow, I got the courage to start self publishing ebooks instead of putting up tutorials on github. When I release them, the readers have an option to get it for free for a few days (could pay as well if they choose to). And this definitely gave much better results. I was driven to research deeper and write the books in a well structured manner, adding exercises, etc compared to the tutorial. Overall, I consider this a win for all parties involved compared to donation model. Plus, payment options like Stripe do not work for individuals in my country.
Yours is an inspiring story. Good luck!!
One of the most frustrating issue is that there's not even a single payment gateway which has global access. This keeps people apart. That is bad.
Only solution I could think of is donation platforms like BuyMeACoffee which handles payment gateway and have lot of checkout options. Actually BuyMeACoffee is an official partner of PayPal and Stripe.
I think another angle to think about is that while a developer may not directly make money from an OSS project that they contribute to, they can build their portfolio or perhaps even be discovered/hired by a company because of their OSS contributions. This is an indirect route to getting paid and it's also a big "if", but it's worth mentioning that OSS work could be a catalyst for money making.
This is a great discussion topic, by the way!
That's a huge topic for discussion. Since we're talking about OSS, where source code is publically available there's lot of chance of duplication. I wonder how to solve this forgery problem.
But projects like devfolio, no cs degree are doing extraordinary things.
My hope is certainly to be discovered, or somehow power through the fact that entry level jobs are basically nonexistent, which I'm guessing requires feats of astonishing brilliance. My main worry is that I'm not talented enough to do nontrivial work.
Even if you're not the most confident with your skills at the moment, I think that's okay. If you show that you're actively trying to learn, I think that counts for a lot. Everybody has to start somewhere!
I wish you the best of luck!
I too wish you best of luck and an awesome career ahead!
Firstly, thank you for your contributions! Secondly, I can't help but share your pain with the catch-22 of OSS. I have made many tools that continue to save me countless hours of pain and misery; and after sharing these with the world, and seeing others benefit, I can attest to the zero-sum game of profitability. Hopefully this is something GitHub can fix.
However, not all is lost! Don't despair. There are working models out there for making an OSS project a sustainable source of income. You may find this interview with Mike Perham (creator of Sidekiq) encouraging ๐
Initiatives like GitHub sponsors are doing pretty much great things. But that again gives privilege to only developers and similar streams. There's lot of other creators like artists, musicians, etc. They are struggling to make a living, to be honest.
Enticing to read on. People like you move the humanity forward by practical contemplation of worldly things (OS).
Thank you, @liyasthomas .
Don't give me any extra credits. Be-ing human.
You sound almost like me, except the part that I have no fraction of success stories or ideas to share. Only a bunch of unfinished projects in my Gitlab account. Your write up is a great motivation. Hello from Kerala! Hope this place is familiar to you ;)
I'm from Thrissur ๐
Ernamkulam ๐
I was at Kerala Startup Mission Kalamaserry for 2-3 months before I went to Kozhikode Cyber park. Now I'm at Kozhikode.
Awesome! I am basically from Malappuram. Been here for around 8 years. Got a telegram id? Connect further?๐
t.me/liyasthomas
Wow. I visited Kerala last month. ๐ด God's own country . Pity I didnt know you from here beforehand!
Next time you visit Kerala, do let me know ๐โจ