
Ask HN: Should I “open source” my projects? - oblib
I have a suite of business apps (cherrypc.com), and now a multi-user Blog app (ibloc.com), that I&#x27;m considering putting on GitHub.<p>Both are written almost entirely in Javascript, so most all the code is visible and easy to copy right now.<p>Both use CouchDB and PouchDB, which I think are fantastic tools to build apps like these, but there&#x27;s not a lot of apps like these out there using them at this point, so they may help others get an idea of how these differ from using PHP and MySQL.<p>What can expect if I do this?<p>I am a bit concerned that if I take the time to do this nothing at all with come of it and my time would be better spent working on the apps.<p>And also that I&#x27;ll be making it possible for anyone to compete with me without near the investment it took to create them or helping to improve the software (though I don&#x27;t think that would necessarily affect me much because neither are well known and both have much better funded alternatives).<p>On the other hand, it would be great if others started helping improve it. I  and my users could certainly benefit from that.<p>Any insight on this would be much appreciated.
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eesmith
I have developed free and open source software for about 20 years.

Back in the 1990s, one of the touted benefits of open source is that that
others will come, use it, and contribute code back.

My experience is that _in my user space_ , people do not contribute much back.
My users are NOT, for the most part, professional programmers. I rarely (less
than once a year) get a code contribution.

I know there are users because when I go to professional meetings I find
people who are using it. But I don't really know how many users there are
because it's distributed through PyPI, apt, etc. where I don't have access to
the download logs.

In the last few years people have told me that I need to be more "social" with
the project; put it on GitHub, promote it on Twitter, etc. But it sounds like
running on a treadmill, going nowhere, because the supposed advantages of
doing that are identical to what I heard 20 years ago. Only, it requires more
work, and I didn't really see the benefit then.

Yes, certainly, there are many areas where free/open source projects are
successful. But I'm growing rather more fond of the way you have it, where
interested people need to contact you.

You wrote "and my time would be better spent working on the apps."

I'll add to that .. spend time marketing to people who might actually pay you
money.

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mtmail
> it would be great if others started helping improve it

Better set your expectations low and see bug reports as helping. I help
maintain a 10 year old open source project with 100 of users, mostly
companies, and help in form of code is rare (2-3 per year and some of those
are too specific to be included). We mostly receive "this <insert feature>
doesn't work" or "can't install on <my -sometimes misconfigured- server>".

> I'll be making it possible for anyone to compete with me without near the
> investment it took to create them or helping to improve the software

With most copyleft licenses such competitor doesn't have to attribute you and
has no obligation to ever contribute. Only if the competitor redistributes the
software do they have to include the original source. If that's your worry
choose a license where commercial use is limited.

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oblib
Thank you both for sharing your experiences.

You confirm my concerns and, really, my expectations as well.

