Is Open Source Recession Proof?

DaMan writes "ZDNet asks Is open source recession proof? 'So, how might a recession affect open source software? Well, first off, I think that any business model that relies on volunteers could certainly see interest decline if times get tough. There are a lot of businesses that rely on people working for them for free because they get a pay check somewhere else, and I think that a recession would make people question working without getting any dollars in return.'"

Comments

Slow news day much?

[DeeQ]

somebody-submit-a-better-story-please This made me laugh

Re:Slow news day much?

[ShieldW0lf]

Recession isn't when there isn't enough money, recession is when the money is hoarded and no longer used for exchange, leading those who are the owners of the real capital to foreclose on everyone and scoop up ownership of anything that isn't already theirs, and causing hardship because everyone just stops working.

The problem with a recession is that everyone just sits around doing nothing with no direction, not that the money supply dried up. It's a testament to the power of sheeple.

So, if people have nothing to do that will make them a quick buck one way or the other, and they haven't yet lost their tools of the trade, there's every reason to think they might contribute more just because they are idle.

Of course, when they've taken your house, it's kind of hard to write software while you're living in a tent city...

Ways a recession could affect Opensource

[Maxo-Texas]

1) Employees of major corporations assigned to opensource could be laid off or reassigned to directly profitable projects.

2) People who work on opensource in their spare time could be laid off and
    a) Be unable to buy computers, maintain an internet connection, etc.
    b) OR... have lots of spare time and do a lot of cool stuff to build their resume.

3) Folks who are depressed are not every productive. In a deep recession there will be a lot of fear, anxiety, and depression.

4) Donations to opensource bandwidth, download sites, and so on could falter and lead to blackouts of key opensource resources.

Re:Ways a recession could affect Opensource

[lwriemen]

5) A bad job market means employers can ask employees to work more overtime without the fear of turnover, leading to less free time available to work on open-source projects.

Definitely

[iminplaya]

If you can do anything besides just counting beans, and you stay out of debt, you are recession proof.

Re:They just don't get it.

[TheRaven64]

There are three kinds of people who fund open source development:

• Those selling complementary products / services.
• Those who actually need the software.
• Those developing in their spare time to pad their CVs.

There are likely to be more unemployed people in a recession so those looking for some form of differentiator to make their own CV more attractive will be more common. Those who need the software will continue developing (or paying third parties to develop it) it, because they have no other choice. They may even become more common since open source development is more efficient than off-the-shelf development and can be introduced as a cost-cutting measure by companies looking to reduce expenditure in a recession.

Those selling complementary products, like IBM, might well cut back. They likely invest a fixed portion of their profits in open source development and if their profits drop then so will this investment. They may increase it to try to spend their way out of the recession, but it's unlikely. The fact that they aren't the only people paying for the development might well mean that they consider that they can cut back a lot and still retain good open source products to build solutions on top of.

Just the opposite

[Bruce Perens]

What was the best thing that happened for Open Source on Wall Street? 9/11.

Of course nobody wanted it that way. But when some Wall Street firms lost data centers and desktops, Sun, IBM, and HP couldn't make hardware fast enough. So, beige boxes all over the east ended up in ad-hoc data centers, running Linux or BSD. And surprise, they ran as well, often better than their predecessors.

Open Source is going to do well whenever IT can't pay a lot for software and has to stretch its budget. Good times might be worse for Open Source, but I don't see them being terrible for it.

Bruce

Re:They just don't get it.

[OptimusPaul]

That's gotta suck, bringing down 3 companies like that must really depress you. You should try and get a job with a company to take a job at their competitor. But seriously, I agree, I think that a lot of people will move to support OSS when times are tough. That kind of thing can really beef up a resume, especially if you can prove yourself on these projects.

Re:Then you are doomed to fail.

[SatanicPuppy]

Don't discount people who just deploy OSS for a living. I know a guy who probably hasn't contributed 10 lines of code over his career, but who is so effective at taking poorly documented OSS projects and making them function beautifully in commercial deployments...He makes a good living, evangelizes the hell out of OSS (he's a true believer), and drives money back into the projects.

Most critically of all, he has the ability to see the flaws, and to visualize the next step that would make the project into something awesome. People like that, who know the features that really need to exist in the project, are almost more important than the people who end up actually coding the feature in. I can do the code, but the spark of genius behind a really good feature...That's special.

Re:They just don't get it.

[yerM)M]

Agreed. In fact from my own professional history, if you have a job and convince your employers that open source is a good idea, when they fire you you can take your work with you. Open source is great job security from the perspective of keeping your toolset alive from position to position.