Don't feed the (Open Source) bears

Current open source structure requires donation of time and money by dedicated programmers. This isn't a tenable solution eventually the programmers will get tired and the donated money will lessen. But this is not the final stage for Open Source. The good place as I have discussed before is one where programmers all work on Open Source projects for paying companies.

You can help with that. Right now Open Source programmers are still waiting for handouts, because that's how it all started. It is time for them to grow up. The next time you're considering donating to an open source project, don't. Instead come up with 3 different problems you have with the software. They could be bugs, features you'd like to see, changing a picture you don't like. Then contact the software team and say, "Hey, I'll give you x dollars if you'll fix one of these 3 things". Et voila! You have just turned a handout into a business transaction.

The first thing this does is make it profitable to be an Open Source programmer. They can make money by making open source code! Right now it's just something they do out of love, but it could become a career. A real viable career option to do something that you believe in. From a programmer perspective closed source is idiotic, it's a cesspool of bugs and bloat and death-by-design-committee. If working on open source software is a possible job opportunity, not just something you do in your spare time it opens up new worlds. Worlds where code is reviewed by hundreds of eyes, where things are refactored and optimized dozens of times as new techniques become better, where applications become more focused on doing their job right, rather than doing every job. Paradise I tell ya! If I can do that, and put my kids through college at the same time, sign me up.

This leads to a shaping of the landscape. Programmers can't really live on the contract work they get from you and me. We're too unstable as a source of income, you can't pay a mortgage without a steady job. But you are conditioning programmers to the idea that there is money to be made in Open Source, and showing companies that you're willing to pay. Quickly the next thing that will happen is a small company will start up as an open source shop, or maybe a current closed source company will open up their shop. Then you've drawn companies who want the money available in the open source ecology, and that will make more robust code, which will draw more people to use the code. This slowly shapes into what programming should be, which is a payment to make an application (or make it better), not a payment for a "product".

Stop giving handouts. It doesn't help. Do give to the community, but ask for something in return. Don't look at Open Source programmers and think, "Oh, those poor hard-working guys, I'll donate so they'll know they're loved". Look at them and say "Good thing you've got the skills, because I have a business proposition for you".