For quite some time, I have felt some unease at the public discourse around OpenSource. In the past few years, we have seen a growing discourse around the sustainability and security of the large body of OpenSource software.

If we combine these two sets of data^1 we obtain a fascinating result^2.

  • 46% of all code out there, in every app, is maintained by hobbyists
  • 13,8% is maintained by “I sometimes get a bit of pocket money for my code”
  • 40% of all code out there is maintained by an industry-paid person

So, nearly 60% of all code being actively shipped in an app or product in the wild is hobbyist-maintained open-source.

See also this discussion on lobste.rs on the economics of the average (as in median) open source project:

https://lobste.rs/s/ftwkvo/hobbyist_maintainer_economic_gravity

To sum up, apparently most open source projects are small, and aren’t funded as paid work. And they matter because of their number, which has the effect that they make up a large part of all software in use.

  • Dogiedog64@lemmy.world
    131·
    2 days ago

    In other words, 60% of code used in any piece of software today can be assumed stolen from normal people by corporations too greedy to pay for it. Great.

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      5·
      2 days ago

      Depends on the license.

      And yes, you could say that the relationship between companies and open source contributors is a bit parasitic at times. But a part of them don’t care because for a start, they are not motivated by money to write open source software.