Open source is sometimes played within the magic circle. When money enters, it becomes a different game. When switching from one game to another, participants often feel betrayed. So, know which one you want to play and be clear about the rules! blog.zaratan.world/p/the-magic-circle
The Magic Circle
blog.zaratan.worldApr 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Open source is a restaurant
[[Chad Whitacre]] makes a great analogy around when/how software gets paid for, vs food. Open Source is a restaurant. At a restaurant, you eat your meal fir...
Open Source is four kinds of economic goods
Open Source code and the stewardship around it have different economics. That distinction helps show what a project might charge for, what it must budget for, and how it could fund stewardship without making the code less open.
Open Source Money will BUIDL the Open Source Ecosystem
The blockchain revolution is growing open source
One Startup's Heretical Plan to Turn Open Source Code Into Cash
With a new kind of license, open sourcers are trying to strike a balance between getting paid and preserving their values.
Open Source Doesn’t Make Money Because It Isn’t Designed To Make Money
We all know the story: you can’t make money on open source. Is it really true?
Open Source is a cost-allocation system
Because the right to use the software is not tied to payment, the license does not connect the people who benefit, the people who decide, and the people who bear the costs. Projects have to build those connections deliberately through governance.
Open Source, Incentives, and Why 'Monetize Later' Often Backfires
How misaligned incentives undermine open source projects — and why 'monetize later' often leads to the very restrictions open source was meant to avoid.
Open source is 20: How it changed programming and business forever
"The reward of victory is often another set of battles."
Open Source Explained — Open Indie
Musings on the concept of ‘open source’, in the broadest possible definition of the term. Also an invitation to become a participant in ...
Fueling Open Source with Vibes & Money
Economists think Open Source is a business model. Devs know better, and fund it accordingly.
In 2019, multiple open source companies changed course—is it the right move?
We have to draw a line between open source and the right to make money with open source."
Open Source is Broken
The Open Source movement, as championed by the OSI, prizes absolute openness above all other concerns. Openness, they claim, is an absolute good, from which all other virtues flow, not to be questioned or criticized. It doesn’t matter if that openness enables evil in the world, without openness we
Home - Open Source Collective
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Why Open Source Is Good For Business
You may have heard of the term open source but what does it actually mean and how can it help us as consumers? Open source is a type of…
