You pay the carpenter for his time and materials. The same thing could be true of software development.
But instead you buy a table from Apple and it's only compatible with chairs from Apple. So you can't pay your local carpenter for repairs or better chairs.
Anyway, the big companies have long since realised it's more lucrative to stop selling the furniture and rent it out instead.
I wrote https://go-micro.dev - A go framework for microservices. I've written a few other things in my time (https://github.com/asim) and tried my hand at hosted paid APIs which was moderately successful but failed as a VC funded business. I think I've just existed so much in an era of free consumer services like Google and open source software that it's skewed my perspective a lot. Like why charge for this, it could be free..m
1. Internet has made distribution frictionless. So unlike giving out Uber trips,
giving out code costs you nothing.
2. You have a real job. The "80% time" for which you're paid subsidizes
the self-promotional work you do for free, and let's not kid ourselves:
most of us write open-source not out of altruism but for the
recognition.
3. Software is immediately useful. Lawyering is a lot like programming
in that both involve putting pen to paper in just the right way. But
pro bono legal work is a lot more painful than whipping up some code.
Lawyers have to deal with people and all their bs.
4. Software is easy. I don't know why but the return on capital blows
away the return on labor. Whereas Microsoft may have once derived most
of their profit from software, they've now come around to the rest of
the tech industry which is selling hardware and compute -- the software
that comes with it is included.
Software is a zero margin commodity, not because it costs nothing to produce but because it can be reproduced infinitely for free. That's why even copywritten/"paid" software like music and video games ultimately end up being free too.
You pay the carpenter for his time and materials. The same thing could be true of software development.
But instead you buy a table from Apple and it's only compatible with chairs from Apple. So you can't pay your local carpenter for repairs or better chairs.
Anyway, the big companies have long since realised it's more lucrative to stop selling the furniture and rent it out instead.
What do you build?
I wrote https://go-micro.dev - A go framework for microservices. I've written a few other things in my time (https://github.com/asim) and tried my hand at hosted paid APIs which was moderately successful but failed as a VC funded business. I think I've just existed so much in an era of free consumer services like Google and open source software that it's skewed my perspective a lot. Like why charge for this, it could be free..m
Many reasons:
1. Internet has made distribution frictionless. So unlike giving out Uber trips, giving out code costs you nothing.
2. You have a real job. The "80% time" for which you're paid subsidizes the self-promotional work you do for free, and let's not kid ourselves: most of us write open-source not out of altruism but for the recognition.
3. Software is immediately useful. Lawyering is a lot like programming in that both involve putting pen to paper in just the right way. But pro bono legal work is a lot more painful than whipping up some code. Lawyers have to deal with people and all their bs.
4. Software is easy. I don't know why but the return on capital blows away the return on labor. Whereas Microsoft may have once derived most of their profit from software, they've now come around to the rest of the tech industry which is selling hardware and compute -- the software that comes with it is included.
Software is a zero margin commodity, not because it costs nothing to produce but because it can be reproduced infinitely for free. That's why even copywritten/"paid" software like music and video games ultimately end up being free too.
But then music, movie and other intellectual productions are everything but free, and AI is sharply shunned whereas code is not. Why ?