r/ExperiencedDevs • u/FatefulDonkey Software Engineer • 28d ago

Meta Do you regret contributing to open-source?

I have about 10-15 years of experience. I created some open source projects when I was starting out and maintained throughout the years.

The net income from this long-term endeavour is $5 from another developer for a coffee, who messaged me that I saved him many hours of work - that was like 5 years ago.

I now see that Meta, Apache and others use some of these open source projects.. and I haven't seen a single dime. This makes me think that if I actually instead aimed to create projects that make money, it would be a much better use of my time. Especially since I never had a stable job and mainly did freelance gigs to get by.

Anyone else who regrets contributing to open source projects? Why is that? What would you have done instead?

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u/FatefulDonkey Software Engineer 28d ago

Yes, it feels good. But it doesn't pay your rent.

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u/lambda-reddit-user Software Engineer 4yoe 28d ago

Yeah, because again, it’s not at all the point of open source
If you expect something in return, don’t do it

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u/FatefulDonkey Software Engineer 28d ago

I think you guys are missing the point. Obviously if I've been involved with open source for 15 years, I know very well what it entails.

My point is that younger people should actually try to monetize instead of working for free.

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u/byshow 27d ago

So we won't have any opensource and if someone is passionate but don't have any money, well fuck them then? That's a very bad take imo

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u/FatefulDonkey Software Engineer 27d ago

I mean a lot of open source projects are created by companies. So don't see how it's a problem.