jacobian

One of the most frustrating parts of running an open source foundation is seeing the disconnect between what companies _say_ about their support for open source and what they actually _do_.

So many of them, it seems, are more interested in being _seen_ as supporting open source than they are actually providing support. It's optics, not altruism.

May 20, 2025 at 3:28pmWeb
Show threadjacobianMay 20, 2025

I think a large part of what frustrates me about this dynamic is the lack of honesty. If you came to me and said "we want more visibility in your community so they will buy our thing", we could have a serious conversation about how to make that happen and how we can all be happy.

But they lie, and say "we want to support the community!", and then throw up all sorts of nonsense roadblocks and requirements, and it's all a mad scramble because they wouldn't say what they want up front.

Show threadStuart LangridgeMay 20, 2025
@jacob hm. I’m not sure honesty would work, though, because I imagine it’s not that “clean” a motive. “We want to look like we care about open source because it gives us credibility with people who aren’t you. We mostly don’t give a shit about you, as long as we’re visible as being involved, but a few of our programmers do. You’re ok with all that, right?” is not a winning pitch for happy relations…
Show threadjacobianMay 20, 2025
@sil kinda yeah. But also it’s not always THAT cynical - in reality I think there’s a mix of altruism and bottom-line-ism. So telling me explicitly “here are the beans the counters are counting”, I have a shot at getting those beans signed up.
Show threadStuart LangridgeMay 20, 2025
@jacob fair. I was leaning a bit on the cynical side, I admit, but there's a grain of truth there as you say. I completely agree that it's really hard to get a business to honestly declare their motives are venial (or even less than perfectly altruistic). I'm not sure that that's fixable, though. If you work out a way to do it, please use it on all businesses everywhere all the time, not just in this particular situation :-)
Show threadDaniel QuinnMay 20, 2025

@sil @jacob I don't know, it seems reasonable to me:

Brand: "Appearing to support your project would make us look good. What can we work out?"

Project: "Give us developers, venues, or just money, and we will tell people you're supporting us."

Show threadDanny GarsideMay 21, 2025
@sil @jacob
I mean, that's what they're saying already, just not with words. I'm a vote for laying it all out as it is and going from there.
I do think that requires the individuals involved to do some inner work though - recognising that "support" in a general sense is different to "support" in a capitalist sense.
Show threadRbowenMay 20, 2025
@jacob Companies that contribute out of altruism, rather than (enlightened) self-interest almost always do it wrong, and it’s also the first thing that gets cut when times are tight. Persuading companies that contribution is an investment, rather than a gift or charity, is the only way I have personally found to get them to care to try to do it right.
Show threadJeff ForcierMay 20, 2025
@jacob
Show threadChristopher NeugebauerMay 20, 2025

@jacob

I really do need to do my talk about the foundations landscape don't I?

The money going into open source *trade organisations* is obscene at the moment, and we on the charities/public benefit side lost the messaging battle on what "foundations" should do. Open Source as corporate collaboration is alive, well, and overfunded by corporates. Open Source as a commons? Far less so.

Show threadChristopher NeugebauerMay 20, 2025
@jacob
(Don't believe me? Look at the Linux Foundation's 990s)
Show threadJeff TriplettMay 20, 2025

@jacob Sure. I also think non-profits have mostly preferred this without saying it out loud because of past dealings.

"We have two developers dedicated to working on X + open-source all day," so can we have your top level sponsorship is also tricky/problematic and hard for a non-profit to manage.

I know I'd prefer they just write us a check so we can fund one-person full-time so that we can SEE that the work is happening.

But I'm with you and nodding, but I'd prefer the check and their logo.

Show threadAvi Rappoport (avirr)May 20, 2025
@jacob I worked for a smallish consulting company and got no traction when proposing to contribute to key open source software.
Show threadAshe Dryden 🙆🏼‍♀️🐈🐈‍⬛May 20, 2025
@jacob Same with anything related to diversity and inclusion :(
Show threadKevin Karhan May 20, 2025

@jacob yes, and #OpenWashing is a real issue not just with #AssholeLicensing as seen with #Redis & others using #SSPL as a literal #AssholeLicense which are just "#SourceAvailable" instead of #OpenSource, but actual #donations.and #contributions.

  • Try to convince any C-level decisionmakers to donate even 1% of the equivalent of licensing the #CCSS equivalents of the #FLOSS deployed will get one laughed at, and suggesting 10% threatened woth getting fired.

#AskMeHowIKnow…

Show threadLutin DiscretMay 21, 2025
@jacob that's why we made @copiepublique cash don't lie
Show threadBryan DavisMay 21, 2025
@jacob The more open-core the vendor the more this seems to ring true. :/