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Without Jobs, Will Open Source Suffer?
darthcamaro writes in with an interview with Markus Rex, Novell's top Linux exec and the former CTO of the Linux Foundation. While some open source vendors see the current economy as a boon to open source, the interview concludes with Rex's speculation on the contrary possibility. "The other thing is in both Europe and the US the rise of the unemployment rate is something that is rather unprecedented... The open source community to a certain degree is dependent on the willingness of people to contribute. We see no indication that anything might change there, but who knows? People need something to live off." Have you thought about scaling back open source work as the economy continues to contract?
Heh... was I the only one who misread this as something to do with Steve Jobs? (And subsequently went "Murrrrrh?")
Program Intellivision!
People need something to live off
This is utterly ridiculous. It's not like work on an open source project is comparable to giving away money, or hand-built widgets. Nobody is going to say "gee, I would normally contribute this code to that open source project, but I'm unemployed, so I'll sell it to buy groceries instead."
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Were I unemployed, I would still contribute to open source projects. The only thing I think would be worse than being jobless and broke would be being bored, jobless, and broke.
Don't take life too seriously; it isn't permanent.
If all those programmers that are unemployed want to keep their skills sharp they better find a project or two to join and keep on coding.
Honestly sitting on the couch for 3 months eating cheetos and playing the Xbox does not make you a useful coder when you finally get another gig. Laid off? go to sourceforge and find something you would like to contribute to, contact the team, and get cracking. Keeps you sharp and you will get spoiled by the no deadline freedom.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I know I got my current job because I had some code in the Linux kernel. Being able to show your code to prospective employers is good advertising.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Stories like these seem to assume two rather dubious things: (1) that programmers always have a choice between work-for-nothing and work-for-something and (2) that all OSS is produced by volunteers for no money.
The second, we know is partially true, if altruism didn't exist OSS wouldn't work nearly as well; but definitely not wholly true, anybody can rattle off the list of big serious commercial players paying people to build OSS.
The first, though, seems a really weird assumption to make when talking about OMG Depression! conditions. For anybody who primarily works for a living(as opposed to primarily owning or investing) the more or less defining characteristic of bad economic times is low prices or no buyers for your labor. It isn't: "Well, times are hard, so I'm going to start selling the labor I used to give away.", it is "Times are hard, people aren't interested in buying the labor I want to sell."
There will probably be some cases where people who used to work relatively short hours at high wages will now work longer hours at lower wages, thus decreasing their OSS contribution; but I strongly suspect that, for most programmers(and people generally) the whole point of "depression" is that you can't just go and sell the labor you used to give away. If things get really dreadful, fall of the USSR style dreadful, we'll probably see less OSS and more subsistence farming and wood chopping; but garden variety economic slowdown would seem to have the opposite effect.
By driving the cost of software to zero, OSS developers have made it difficult for many people to act creatively due to the high cost of development. While OSS developers may make some money developing an open source software package, they have essentially forever undercut anyone who might have also developed something similar. This isn't to say that closed source products are somehow more encouraging of competition, but simply that OSS stakes out the monopoly position as its first step (by pricing everything else out of the picture) whereas closed source companies must work hard to make every sale.
This, I think, is the reason why OSS is generally of poor quality (generally speaking) compared to closed source competition. Whereas OSS is driven by addressing specific needs, closed source must compete on its merits and advantages. This leads to very utilitarian software for OSS (Ubuntu) and much more colorful and creative software for closed source (Apple's OSX).
In fact, there is probably a middle ground that many hardware manufacturers are already taking. By pairing the utility of OSS with the style of closed source, they are able to build very interesting devices that not only look good, but also function well. And at the same time, by focusing on developing products with merit and advantages, these hardware makers are keeping competition alive and engineers employed. So maybe the middle ground is to write closed source software and steal from the unemployed OSS guys.
FOSS sounds like a great way to keep my skills relevant and honed. It will also help fill in those blank time periods which employers hate. I see you haven't been employed for the last six months. Oh well, I've been searching for a job and working for (this particular) project. Check out some of my work if you'd like, here is the URL...
I would think that sacked software engineers would actually be more likely to start contributing to OSS ...
[I can't RTFA because of content filtering where I'm at right now. So I'm guessing about its contents.]
Every time I've been between jobs, I didn't sit around drinking 40s, eating doritos, and watching tv -- I worked on my own projects (websites and software) and some open source software. But when I spend all day working then come home and deal with dinner, running errands, other life stuf... that doesn't leave much time for working on open source software.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Speaking as a developer who uses lots of FOSS, I think as long as there are jobs there will be a demand for open-source software. I would be worried if I worked for IBM or BEA or any of the other vendors who sell expensive stuff. My company believes in open source and when we propose to use that sort of technology, our business customers don't bat an eye.
If I'm looking at fairly equally qualified candidates and one of them spent their off time contributing to an open source project, I would tend to see that as a very big point in their favor. To me that says they really enjoy what they do and have concerns that go beyond the bottom line. And that they care enough about their skills to keep them sharp while they were off.
Community service always looks good, even if that community is virtual. And that can make those of you coming out of college stand out from your peers. An open source project can give you very marketable experience.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Engineer A who was laid off and did nothing for 3 months except take his unemployment check..
OR
Engineer B who was laid off and did some work on an open source project where he/she learned some new things and kept their skills sharp?
I think the exact opposite would occur, No jobs equals more people who now have the time to jump in.
Happens all the time, just browse a bunch of SF.net projects' homepages. Development always has a cost, regardless of the retail price of the product. This also applies to FOSS.
After giving it some thought, I have decided that "Sentence case" is superior to "Title Case" from the viewpoint of precision. By capitalizing words in headings and titles of publications (of which there are many different ways to do it!), information is lost as to whether a particular word was a proper noun or not.
Furthermore, there are words (capitonyms) that completely change meaning and possibly pronunciation depending on the capitalization. For instance, "polish your shoes" vs. "eat a Polish sausage", or "measure the mass" vs. "go to Mass".
Using title case is a lossy operation.
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
Likely, some of those who have lost their jobs will moan that they don't have time to work on open-source projects; they'll move into their parents' basements, read job postings on Craigslist and send off a few dozen resumes each day, then spend the rest of their time playing World of Warcraft.
These people are losers. They weren't going to work on open-source projects anyway, so a recession and layoff doesn't make a bit of difference to their usefulness to the world. It just gives them more time for World of Warcraft.
For the rest of us, though, a layoff would be an opportunity to learn and to create. Job-hunting does not take eight hours a day - especially in a weakened job market, when few interviews are being granted. Does anyone really expect to go to four interviews a day? If things really tank, you'll be lucky to get one or two interviews a week. Mailing out resumes and reading advertisements doesn't take more than a few hours a day. What is a laid-off programmer going to do with the rest of the day?
The good ones will still be programming. Learn a new language or framework; study for certifications; work on an open-source project. All of these things will make the person more marketable.
(There are exceptions, of course. People with no savings and no family or friends who they can move in with might have to work twelve hours a day slinging hamburgers.)
When the job market improves, what will you say to a hiring manager at an interview about the missing year on your resume? "I learned Ruby and Haskell, and contributed Feature X to Project Y" or "I sent out lots of resumes and no one was hiring. But I got my Arch-Druid to level 80!"?
I read it on Slashdot.
I'm a software developer. I've had a few periods where I was unemployed. I think that is when I wrote the most open source software. I had time. What else does a software guy do when he has plenty of spare time?
In the United States, unemployment is mandatory insurance, not welfare. Premiums are paid by workers and taken out of their paychecks. When they later become unemployed, they are certainly entitled to the benefit they were paying premiums for.