
Big Tech Controls Many Major Open-Source Projects. Is That a Problem? - SunTzu9087
https://insights.dice.com/2019/08/05/open-source-google-microsoft-apple-github/
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payne92
It wasn't that long ago that big tech controlled most software....as entirely
closed-source. And that's still largely the case: the source for Google's
search algorithms, Facebook's core platform, etc.

While it's good to be mindful that some projects are "controlled" by large
tech companies, it's a huge improvement over the way it used to be. I'd rather
see FB open-source React, Google open-source TensorFlow, etc. than keep it all
proprietary.

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SmellyGeekBoy
Indeed, and the benefit of Open Source is that if the company takes a project
in a direction that people aren't happy with (or abandons it) it can be
forked.

In fact it could be argued that these companies only control these projects
because the community allows them to.

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mcv
Is it a problem? I remember when major tech companies were criticised for not
embracing Open Source. People tried to convert Big Tech to embrace Open
Source. Now they've clearly done so. Is this not what we wanted?

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entropea
Embracing open source != buying major open source or making open source an
advertising platform for your for-profit endeavors.

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SmellyGeekBoy
> making open source an advertising platform for your for-profit endeavors

Can you name an example? I don't see any adverts for RHEL in Fedora or Visual
Studio / Azure in VS Code, so I'm struggling to come up with something.

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esnowrackley
Steve Klabnik writes about this prolifically:

The culture war at the heart of open source:
[https://words.steveklabnik.com/the-culture-war-at-the-
heart-...](https://words.steveklabnik.com/the-culture-war-at-the-heart-of-
open-source)

What comes after “open source”: [https://words.steveklabnik.com/what-comes-
after-open-source](https://words.steveklabnik.com/what-comes-after-open-
source)

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dickeytk
Considering the resources that it takes to maintain these projects it’s best
they have some serious backing and not just a few volunteers.

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entropea
Lets have the interests of giant for-profit corporations backing our open
source projects, that will surely end up in the best interests for free and
open software!

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
It's hard to argue that a project having clear leadership and being well
funded would be against its best interests.

