How open source quietly won the software wars

It may be hard to imagine now, but not so long ago there wasn’t much enthusiasm behind the idea of ​​free software with source code that anyone could modify. How can that be safe? What about the support? Can you entrust business-critical matters to this software?

Today, almost everything we rely on in the world of computer technology runs, at least in part open source code. It’s in your phone, our web servers, appliances, cars, and basically anything with a microchip that runs code. Open source is getting stronger.

Why closed source suppliers can no longer keep up

No matter how much money and resources you have, you can never compete with the resources of a global community of programmers, designers, and other people who help make software a reality. For the most popular open source projects, you simply can’t match the speed of development and rapid iteration of open source.

Closed source software also brings with it the specter of vendor lock-in and ‘security through obscurity’. Now, I don’t want to repeat the semi-myth that open source software is inherently more secure than closed source, but for large projects with a lot of eyeballs, it’s very difficult to achieve something like zero-day exploits.

The economic shift that makes open source unbeatable

If you run a large company that depends on software functioning, which seems like the better deal? Paying a private company forever expensive licensing fees in the hope that the promise of “99% uptime” is something they can actually deliver? Instead, you can use open source software without licensing fees. You can divert that money only to maintain that open source software (third party or your own) and if you hire in-house software experts, any contributions they make to that open source software can be integrated not only into your business, but also for the benefit of everyone who uses that software.

At the same time, other companies pouring resources into that open source software are also improving it, making it more secure, and adding features to it. So now everyone shares in the maintenance and development of that software, which reduces costs for each individual company. Lower costs for the company mean lower costs passed on to their customers, so regular people like you and me also benefit indirectly.

In fact, almost all the things you buy that rely to some extent on open source software would have cost quite a bit more if it weren’t for this “sharing is caring” approach to spreading costs.

How open communities are surpassing billion-dollar R&D budgets

Open source software exposes code to a global stage. It encourages competition, people splitting projects and taking apps in different specialized directions. New features and ideas are tested and iterated in parallel; it is the perfect breeding ground for rapid innovation and equally rapid peer review to root out bad ideas. Anyone can become a beta tester by simply compiling code or downloading an app and providing feedback.

The sheer scope of the open source movement is hard to imagine, and it’s not like it’s perfect and in every way always better than closed source projects. In my experience, open source software often lacks coherence and sophistication when it comes to user interfaces or usability when compared to proprietary stuff. However, new fundamental ideas, technologies, and approaches are more likely to emerge in the open source world, allowing the closed source portion of the industry to copy and refine them.

Both types of software are important and necessary, but I think the relative importance of open source is clearly growing.

What the next phase of the software wars looks like

Right now, the term “AI” is on everyone’s lips, and beyond the role that open source software has already played in the development of modern AI, the futures of these two fields are fundamentally linked. Deb Richardson of Red Hat argues that open source is crucial for the future of AI. Especially when it comes to giving everyone access to the technology and making it safe and transparent.

However, I personally worry about how AI will impact software development on both sides of the fence. The rise of vibe coding means that a lot of unwanted code will flow into open source projects not even Linus Torvalds’ hatred of bad code will stop the flood. Our software world is already firmly built on open source, but I’m afraid this could collapse the entire house of cards.