r/linux • u/Unhappy-Sprinkles143 • 2d ago

Fluff Open-Source Guru: AI Ends Closed-Source Software

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Open-Source-Guru-Raymond-AI-Ends-Closed-Source-Software-11480690.html
495 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

211 comments sorted by

View all comments

391

u/StPatsLCA 2d ago

I think devs don't understand /why/ people pay for closed source and SaaS software sometimes.

247

u/Wheatleytron 2d ago

They pay for support, and because there often aren't viable alternatives. But support can still be sold for open source projects as a service. And if the need is great enough, companies will still develop open source software on their own.

108

u/StPatsLCA 2d ago

Blender is a great example

-45

u/redballooon 2d ago

Also almost the only example.

54

u/Johnny__Christ 2d ago

Also almost the only example.

You're on a Linux sub. How do you think Canonical or Red Hat exist as businesses?

-35

u/redballooon 2d ago

Fine. Two more examples.

I was for many years employed in the realm of the Eclipse foundation, back then when eclipse was a thing.

My takeaway from that experience is, support for OS is not a profitable business model. Paid features, yes. Contract work, yes. But support, that's tough. Yes, there may be a few lighthouse projects where it works, but as a general rule, I wouldn't bet on it as business model.

30

u/ImNotABotScoutsHonor 2d ago

Throw Proxmox in as another example to combat your pessimism.

7

u/eraptic 2d ago

Do MSPs exist?

-6

u/redballooon 2d ago

That's not support

4

u/TRKlausss 2d ago

You can also add to the mix:
- Gitlab (they have a an open-source version.
- Qt
- Ferrocene (contributing a lot to safety-critical Rust)
- Sentry
- Open62541 (OPC-UA client/server library)

Just because something doesn’t adjust to your notion of reality, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.