The Lack of Compensation in Open Source Software Is Unsustainable

• uBlock

  2,992 43,007 9.9 JavaScript

  uBlock Origin - An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean.

Firstly, uBlock doesn’t really talk about its own updates, since all the frequent updates it needs are provided by its filter lists. It’s basically an app store, a little bit like F-Droid. And you’re right, I can find no explicit language that either states or implies any of the things i listed.

But think of it this way. There is a prominent link to their list of releases, <https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases>. From what I can tell, the releases vary from a few days apart to maybe a month apart, with the most recent release being yesterday. What would you think if, say, six months from now, there still wasn’t a new release? No bugs fixed? And, when asked, the developer’s answer would be “You’re whiny and entitled, I have no legal obligation to do anything, read the license LOL.” I mean, he’d be technically correct, it would be legal for him to do this. But would it be OK? What I am arguing is that it would not be OK, and that users do have legitimate reasonable expectations of any project that presents itself as being active; i.e. fixing bugs, security holes, and implementing new features. Users are not “entitled” when expecting these things.

• awesome-selfhosted

  765 177,940 8.7 Makefile

  A list of Free Software network services and web applications which can be hosted on your own servers

  

I agree, however, compensation in general is reaching a point where rational value calculations are fraying. I can't explain why an engineer, though well paid, is making .01% of the CEO's salary, nor can I explain why an engineer doing the same work but in the Philippines is making 40% of the salary of the one in the USA.

I was very inspired by "Walkaway" by Cory Doctorow. It involves a world where people detach themselves from "Default" (global capitalist society) by living in abandoned towns, building the tooling they need to re-establish a modern quality of life. He pulled a great deal on the open source movement in his speculations of how this might look. What I didn't realize at the time is it is essentially an anarchist proposition of community self-reliance. In the novel, there's no point in seeking compensation for your work, because your basic needs are already met by a share-and-share-alike society, and therefore everything you do fulfills either a very clear personal or community need (building a tractor, a house, software to manage a farm, a public spa, or repair schedules), or, is purely for pleasure.

My friend that's sticking it out in the USA is doing the "correct" path for an engineer: First gig in our hometown, transitioned to NYC, did a 4 year tour there saving a couple hundred K, house upstate, still working and saving for retirement but also farming ants and doing his other odd projects for his pleasure. In a recent conversation he mentioned frustration at the poor retirement opportunities for most of our generation. You gamble your life saving's on the stock market, or, do something that doesn't really benefit the world like flipping properties, if you can afford it. If your interest is self fulfillment, community fulfillment, and financial fulfillment as we grow older, that doesn't really exist, at least not in any combination that we've been able to figure out. He's thinking about some kind of ethical business venture, or maybe just a fun thing he can kick off that he can hire his non-engineering friends into like a cute little sandwich shop or something, but as he enters that world he's realizing all his competition is hyper-capitalized businesses or people that he can't possibly compete with if he doesn't do the same shit they're doing, such as filling their kitchens with undocumented immigrants. Basically, if he wants to do good and get paid for it, the opportunities just don't seem to be there.

So therefore, long term what I want to strive for as I build out open source software is actions that "break us out of the box." I and my like minded friends don't really think capitalism is going to cut it in terms of actually rewarding with money our efforts to do good in the world; after all, an investment banker makes more than a teacher and firefighter combined, and does functionally nothing useful. Therefore I'm interested in building things that free people from a financial burden. Every little financial burden I can free people from is a success. I love when I read stories about people building out little GPT programs that can automatically negotiate parking bills or whatever. Or scan your email to automatically apply for rebates and coupons. Or, outside of actual coding, helping people find out that their library has a streaming app they can use for free, so they don't have to pay netflix anymore. Or helping people turn their lawns into gardens, to reduce their food bills.

From a software standpoint, the "Awesome Selfhosted" project is very inspiring in this vein: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted Lots of tools that many people pay for that you can instead deploy on your own and use for free in a way you control.

That's the kind of open source software I want to build. Trying to get paid to build FOSS is a distraction, instead I want to build things that will help people not have to pay for other stuff. I make plenty of money in my day job, I'm good on that front. Pipe dream, we do enough of it, and the question of "getting paid" becomes moot.

• WorkOS

  workos.com sponsored

  The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  

• alarme-intelbras

  1 27 7.1 Python

  Receptor IP para alarme Intelbras AMT-8000

I have published a project to interact with house alarm systems manufactured by a local company [1]. It is a hobby project, I have it for my own use, don't expect it becomes a money printing machine.

Yet, since many users request features well outside my use cases, and I have only one sample of the many alarm models that use the same protocol, I thought I'd be successful in getting some help from the manufacturer, from lent hardware (at pessimist size) to some small monetary contribution (optimist side). I got no response at all...

People are also fast to point things that are "wrong" but don't want to submit a PR at all.

[1] https://github.com/elvis-epx/alarme-intelbras

• albumentations

  28 13,395 8.3 Python

  Fast image augmentation library and an easy-to-use wrapper around other libraries. Documentation: https://albumentations.ai/docs/ Paper about the library: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/11/2/125

  

I am one of the creators and maintainers of https://albumentations.ai/.

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