What are the benefits of contributing to open source projects?

Question

Hi,

A year ago I was a big fan of .NET. I was developing custom applications on demand and it was not hard to understand how you can live by doing this kind of job - the customer asks you to make a custom application, you arrange the price, do the job and earn money.

Now I hear more and more people talking about open source projects and collective intelligence which seems a great concept to contribute something to the innovation. But of course as a full-time employee it is hard to find time to work for free and I don't understand what are other benefits of contributing to open source projects beside personal satisfaction.

I would be very thankful if you could explain how the contribution to the open source project could be paid off.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Help to improve code

You can get all updates to you software. You can find out pitfalls and defects in your code if someone else edited some functionality in your code.

Added functionality

Any one can add functionality to your software. By this you will be aware of what all things you missed in the design and can contribute to your future software development.

Answer 2

For personal use, many people want to contribute to the open source because they use so much themselves. And the only way they can use open source is if people contribute to it. Also if people want a feature added, they can help others by giving it away.

For many companies, creating open source software means they can benefit largely from additions made by other people, while still getting the software they need.

Also there is the great amount of personal experience, and a good item on your CV that helps.

However, in the end, most open source projects are run/created by people that do it make the software they work on better, to help others.

Answer 3

There are a few benefits to working on open source projects. I'll be brief here and allow you to work out the detail as you go.

1. Experience. You'll get to use some stuff you probably won't get to use in your day job.
2. Fun. It will be a project you've chosen, so you can enjoy it a bit more.
3. Freedom. There will probably be less rules about what you can use and how funky you can make things (within reason)
4. You Need It! You'll probably choose a product that you have some need for but you want to contribute to the features.

Just because something is open source, doesn't mean it isn't "commercially viable". For example, you might charge for the service of installing, configuring and guiding a client who uses the application and the fact that the software is open source is a big selling point. You don't make money from license fees, you make money from consultancy.

Answer 4

Contributing to open source shows that you like software development, not just the salary - that can make you more interesting to a prospective employer.

Answer 5

For me to work as in open source projects has the following advantages:

• Make you learn more
• Shows to the world your development skills
• Make you a reference in a specific suject or for a group of people
• Give a good impression about you that you work with development because you love it. Love enough to spend your free time on a free project
• It can become a product in the future or with a "key module" or plugins that a user must pay for it
• One more time: make you learn more, specially if you are doing a project without relation with your "daily job"

Answer 6

As far as employability is concern? Street cred.

Peer-interviewers often take (varying degrees of) stock in a fellow programmer's contribution to open source projects, especially if you're at a junior level. It shows self-motivation, proactive-ness, ability to work in distributed teams, proof that you've actually used some sort of version control, etc.

Answer 7

One other reason: Suppose you use version 1.4 of an open source product and want a feature added to it. You add it on your own copy and do not contribute back to the open source version. When version 1.5 is released with a lot of other goodies that you would love to have, you will again need to patch up 1.5 with your required feature. If you had contributed back and it went into the open source version, you will not have this maintenance problem.

Answer 8

You might like to try reading The Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S Raymond (a big open source contributor). It's a very good overview of the history of the open source movement, how it works and where it might be going, written in an informal and approachable style. I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of open source (my husband's last two jobs have been in open source based companies) but I still learnt a lot from it.

Answer 9

1. you will be listed as contributors in the project website (if any) and this is great because you can tell your clients that you are the contributor of that open source product. It would add value to you.

2. it would be good for your portofolio/resume if you are involved in open source project in the past / present.

3. for fun. you help eagerly to make a better software for yourself and others. it also fun to see your open source project grows and being used by many companies.

4. experience that you would have for being work together as team. also you can learn from others how to code.

Answer 10

Here's my reasons: Why I spend so much time working on an Opensource project

And my views about the differences between paid jobs and working on open source projects might also be interesting here.

Answer 11

You might also ask, what are the benefits of giving or volunterring for a charity?

In terms of getting paid, some companies employ people to work on open source projects, full time. But the vast majority of minor contributions will see no direct monetry payback, apart from knowing that the software has been improved for everyone using it. Of cource, things such as repuation can be built, you learn more skills and potential employers can see your work, but these in themselves will not necesserly equal a monetary payback.

If you write you own software and open-source is you can still sell it, and sell support services for it (eg helplines, support, paper manuals, custom programming) This is a common business model for open source companies.