Are most authors of OSS hobbyist developers?

[Staples]

I have always wondered this. Do you think most OSS are just (1) hobbyist developers, (2) commercial developers who are out of work or (3) kids who are in school/too young or inexperienced to get a professional level job doing software development?

It always seemed to me that a lot of Linux die hards and staunch proponents of OSS are mostly young people and then as they grow older and possibly have kids and a lot less time on their hands, they drop their radicalization and many even come down to earth with the philosophy, use whatever you are comfortable with. (speaking from experience with a friend).

 

[mosco]

A lot of major Open Source projects are backed by companies, who pay their employees to work on it.

Products like firefox actually employ people that work on it, they get money from things like searches.

 

[GregGreen]

People that contribute to open source projects might occasionally fit into your 3 categories, but most are people who have real jobs they have to go to and have experience in what they are doing. A lot of projects come about because they had to do something in their real job that is easily extensible to the broader community (and their employer is cool with it).

Don't be so dismissive.

 

[mv2devnull]

Which variant of "OSS"?
http://blog.schiessle.org/2012/05/11/free-software-open-source-foss-floss-same-same-but-different/

 

[Nothinman]

I have always wondered this. Do you think most OSS are just (1) hobbyist developers, (2) commercial developers who are out of work or (3) kids who are in school/too young or inexperienced to get a professional level job doing software development?

Most start out programming as a hobby because it's something they enjoy, but now get paid to do it by someone like RedHat, MS, Oracle, etc. The stereotype of free software developer being twenty-somethings with no job living in their parents basement stopped being prolific decades ago.

It always seemed to me that a lot of Linux die hards and staunch proponents of OSS are mostly young people and then as they grow older and possibly have kids and a lot less time on their hands, they drop their radicalization and many even come down to earth with the philosophy, use whatever you are comfortable with. (speaking from experience with a friend).

If I cared about your opinion that might be offensive, but it pretty much applies to everything. People are generally really liberal and more idealistic when they're younger and get more pragmatic and conservative as they get older.

 

[Staples]

I agree that people who are creating high quality stuff like frameworks, web servers, databases, browsers and maybe even open office and gimp are probably coming from paid professionals but the last time I used a *nix GUI, it was full of clones of IMs (because no official ones existed) and many other not so high quality apps. Granted this was 5+ years ago but I doubt the majority of this type of software is coming from paid developers.

Also, what sparked this question is over the last 10 years or so, I have used many open source and free PHP/mySQL CMS systems and bulletin boards and I have always gotten the impression that they were mostly all developed by hobbyist developers. (SMF, PHPBB, Wordpress, etc.)

 

[Nothinman]

I agree that people who are creating high quality stuff like frameworks, web servers, databases, browsers and maybe even open office and gimp are probably coming from paid professionals but the last time I used a *nix GUI, it was full of clones of IMs (because no official ones existed) and many other not so high quality apps. Granted this was 5+ years ago but I doubt the majority of this type of software is coming from paid developers.

Also, what sparked this question is over the last 10 years or so, I have used many open source and free PHP/mySQL CMS systems and bulletin boards and I have always gotten the impression that they were mostly all developed by hobbyist developers. (SMF, PHPBB, Wordpress, etc.)

Lots of them start as hobbies but get picked up by companies, or turn into companies, once they pick up steam. But I don't see the point in the distinction. If the software works who cares if its development is funded directly by a corporation or by a few people in their spare time?

App quality varies on all systems and IME the free software ones are usually higher quality than their commercial alternatives. IM apps are a good example because Pidgin has become extremely popular, even on Windows. At work I use Pidgin instead of the official WebEx Connect client because the one from Cisco is so slow and clunky. And unlike Connect, I can add my Google account to Pidgin get the added benefit of having my work and personal IM all in one app. Occasionally a non-free app is just straight up better than the free alternatives, like VMware Workstation, but it's usually the exception and not the rule.

 

[purbeast0]

the software i work on at my job went open source recently. we're fully funded and will continue to be. the thing is, not anyone can just contribute to our codebase. anyone can however submit patches and fork off of us. but just because a patch is submitted does not mean it will be put into the master repo.

 

[Staples]

The purpose of this thread is really to attempt to discover how many people can create useful software and stay hobbyists never actually getting into the real industry. I have always wondered that. I have been a hobbyist for 10+ years and never have had a software job (well, not entirely true but almost). Granted, most my work has been in php/mysql and Perl/CGI but it is software.

 

[Staples]

I have an update to this thread. In the OP I asked if the forum thought that most OSS contributors were professionals or whether they were just hobbiest. I'd have assumed the latter was true but of course Apache, mySQL, Mono class OSS software popped into everyoone's head and the consensus was that these were professionals who even got paid to do it. Of course big software projects like these get sponsorships but I have come up with a few other examples.

3rd party Android releases such as Cyanogen mod
Some substantial game mods
Back in the day, XBMC when it was only for modded Xboxes

Both of these take a big understanding of programming and some talent. I always wondered if these were all contributed by students/hobbiest or do we think there are professional developers who come home at night and contribute to such causes?

 

[smackababy]

I'd say there are a lot of professionals that do that kind of stuff in their free time and hobbyists who work in other fields. That does not diminish the talent of those working on it or the value of what they create.

 

[Nothinman]

I have an update to this thread. In the OP I asked if the forum thought that most OSS contributors were professionals or whether they were just hobbiest. I'd have assumed the latter was true but of course Apache, mySQL, Mono class OSS software popped into everyoone's head and the consensus was that these were professionals who even got paid to do it. Of course big software projects like these get sponsorships but I have come up with a few other examples.

3rd party Android releases such as Cyanogen mod
Some substantial game mods
Back in the day, XBMC when it was only for modded Xboxes

Both of these take a big understanding of programming and some talent. I always wondered if these were all contributed by students/hobbiest or do we think there are professional developers who come home at night and contribute to such causes?

Cyanogenmod is a great example because it's a project that was started by 1 guy as a hobby that become popular enough to have a team of other developers grow around him supporting other devices and then to have Steve get hired at Samsung. I believe that he recently left Samsung, but I'm not sure why.

Game modes have another good example in Team Fortress. The original mod was done for QWTF as a hobby and it took off. It was redone several times for Q2, Q3 and ET and some of the devs got hired by Valve to create TF2.

I don't see what you're getting at. What is the point of the distinction you're trying to create?

 

[BrightCandle]

Open source software covers a wide range of software solutions and libraries.

Some of it is company sponsored.
Some of it is a joint collaboration between multiple companies.
Some of it is professionals working on it and consulting around it.
Some of it is just professionals working on something they enjoy doing in their spare time.
Some of it is amateurs playing with things.
Some of it is university professors and researchers contributing or making projects.
Some of it is student projects.
+ many many other types of people and funding possibilities.

The entire range of possibilities is out there, every project is different and with different motives behind it. You can't claim OSS is mostly one or the other way because its not like that at all. The only thing that is really true is that its constantly changing and progressing.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Someone did a study on this about a year ago for the Linux Kernel at least.

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news...tion-releases-annual-linux-development-report

Notable take-aways from the report:

Seventy-five percent of all kernel development is done by developers who are being paid for their work.
More than 7,800 developers from almost 800 different companies have contributed to the Linux kernel



So the answer to your question, no, most of the development is done by professional programmers being paid by companies (at least on the more complex applications).

 

[Staples]

I don't see what you're getting at. What is the point of the distinction you're trying to create?

Ever since I read the article stating that the half life of developers is 5 years, I wonder where all these guys disappear to? I kind of doubt the half life is really 5 years, maybe only at a big software company where you have to practically live there. Anyway, there is a lot of talent out there writing OSS and I just think that if these guys are mostly hobbiest, then I don't see why there is such a huge need for software people in the US. I see CEOs jumping up and down about how we need to allow more foreign software engineers in the country because there are not enough here to fill the need.

But then again, if Google, MS, FB and the rest are looking for PH.Ds and not just good software developers, then maybe they have a point.

 

[degibson]

But then again, if Google, MS, FB and the rest are looking for PH.Ds and not just good software developers, then maybe they have a point.

Not really clear what you mean here... ?

 

[Staples]

Not really clear what you mean here... ?

There used to be an often repeated myth that you really need to be a PH.D to work at Google. This came from the supposed fact that most of their employees were PH.Ds. I am not sure how true this was but this was often repeated a few years ago.

 

[Nothinman]

Not really clear what you mean here... ?

Because there is no real point to this thread.

 

[Leros]

There used to be an often repeated myth that you really need to be a PH.D to work at Google. This came from the supposed fact that most of their employees were PH.Ds. I am not sure how true this was but this was often repeated a few years ago.

That's not true and I doubt it ever was true. Google hires high quality software developers. I'm sure you'd see the same kind of people at other good companies.

I have no doubt that Google has teams consisting of PhDs, but 99% of the stuff they do is not much different than what other companies do.

 

[Nothinman]

Ever since I read the article stating that the half life of developers is 5 years, I wonder where all these guys disappear to? I kind of doubt the half life is really 5 years, maybe only at a big software company where you have to practically live there. Anyway, there is a lot of talent out there writing OSS and I just think that if these guys are mostly hobbiest, then I don't see why there is such a huge need for software people in the US. I see CEOs jumping up and down about how we need to allow more foreign software engineers in the country because there are not enough here to fill the need.

But then again, if Google, MS, FB and the rest are looking for PH.Ds and not just good software developers, then maybe they have a point.

I would guess that the article you read was just crap. Everyone I know that does any kind of development has been doing it for more than 5 years. The majority of them have been doing personal/hobby development off and on since they got their first computer, which sort of dates me too.

 

[Stone Rain]

A lot of open source software is developed by multiple companies working together. One big example is the Linux kernel. There's a lot of hobbyist coders working on it, but the lions' share of hacking is done by paid corporate programmers.