Open Source, a relic, a charity or still the thing?

2026-10-05 oskar dudyczSoftware Architecture

A friend asked me recently whether there is any sense in doing Open Source now. My answer was the same as always. I see three options.

1. You get money out of it.
2. You’re dogfooding it in your work projects.
3. You have fun doing it.

If none of that is true, it makes no sense and never did. Best if there’s a combination of 1 or 2 with 3. And at least one of those options is a bare minimum.

Doing OSS is mostly for fun; success stories of single people who succeeded financially through it are rare. Personally, even though some of my projects got wide adoption, I always struggled to make money from them to justify the effort. Unfortunately, OSS creators don’t get enough respect for their effort; with GenAI, that’s even lower. And I don’t think that’s good for the industry long-term, but that’s, in my opinion, the reality.

So my advice would be to think about whether:

1. Your project has commercial potential.
2. It can be turned into a product.
3. There are people willing to pay for that.

If yes, go closed-source and productise it. You can always open it later or make the source available to customers.

This kind of goes back to the old days of shareware, etc. I don’t like that, but this is how it goes. I also need to learn from my own advice.

„I’m just standing on the shoulders of giants”

is a common phrase to show that you’re humble.

In the Open Source, it is the opposite. In our industry, giant companies stand on the shoulders of a small group of passionate, regular folks.

Many people believe that “someone is sponsoring those projects”, but when you think about “ok, but did I sponsor some?” then the answer is usually no.

I have the luck to get some sponsorship. Not huge, but still. I’m calling that “Whiskey money”. I don’t drink a lot, but I could buy a bottle with that amount from time to time and could salute those good folks.

It’s important to think of supporting OSS as due diligence, not gratitude. It’s ensuring that critical parts of your architecture will be maintained and continued. Essentially, that lowers your cost and risk.

Yes, we can vibe code a lot these days, but do we want to take responsibility and get late-night calls if that part doesn’t work?

So folks, check whether the OSS you’re using has support contracts, consulting or workshops, sponsorship, or paid add-ons. Don’t think of them as charity, but as a way to outsource work someone else can do cheaper and more reliably.