Open source is at a crossroads (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

This week we’re joined by Steve O’Grady, Principal Analyst & Co-founder at RedMonk. The topic today is the definition of open source, the constant pressure on the true definition of the term, and the seemingly small but vocal minority that aim to protect that definition. In Steve’s post Why Open Source Matters, he says “open source is at a crossroads” and there are some seeking to break the definition of open source to one that is more permissive to their desires, and they are closer than ever to achieving that goal. Today’s conversation goes deep on this subject.

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Featuring:

• Stephen O'Grady – Website, GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Why Open Source Matters
• You can FINALLY use JSHint for evil with Mike Pennisi
• Introducing Infrastructure Manager powered by Terraform - cloud.coogle.com
• Luis Villa’s Open(ish) Machine Learning News newsletter
• Open Source Initiative - donate
  • Deep Dive: AI Webinar Series
  • Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director of OSI since 2021

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Chapter

1. This week on The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Convex (00:01:05)

https://www.convex.dev/?utm_source=changelog&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=changelog-news

3. Start the show! (00:04:24)

4. Recent events for context (00:07:29)

5. Do developers even care? (00:09:04)

6. JSHint project as evidence (00:16:39)

7. The advantage of being "open soure" (00:21:22)

8. The good will aspect (00:26:19)

9. "Truly good coffee" as an analogy (00:30:41)

10. Sponsor: Statsig (00:34:37)

https://statsig.com/changelog

11. The open source definition needs to change (00:38:06)

12. Help us AWS, don't hurt us (00:43:00)

13. Microsoft's good will (00:49:01)

14. AI licensing (00:50:48)

15. Are devs becoming the minority? (00:54:46)

16. Output is copyrighted? (00:56:51)

17. 30% of my code is AI generated (00:58:00)

18. Microsoft will indemnify Copilot users (01:00:03)

19. Sponsor: Changelog News (01:03:38)

https://changelog.com/news

20. Steve on predicting the future (01:05:25)

21. The OSI maintains the definition (01:08:34)

22. How to NOT bait and switch (01:14:27)

23. How does Redmonk maintain credibility? (01:17:28)

24. Wrapping up (01:22:13)

25. Outro (01:23:56)