Introduction

As a proponent and maintainer of a positive collaborative attitude in open source for many years, numerous projects have received acclaim and adoption from developers and companies of all sizes in the business environment. Firstly, I regret to say that I have decided to step away from open source.

I really did not have much time to bother for projects on the weekend, and I have many other important issues to do now, in addition to work and change of life that have occupied all the parts. Growing my time is not enough so I decided to leave Open Source. In addition, I will share some issues that I have encountered in the process of participating in Open Source and is also the reason why I left it.

Features and Issues

I was once very excited to engage in open source and viewed it as perhaps a part of every programmer's life if not for open source. But it's not really like that. Once your code is contributed to an open-source project, you'll have to endure a lot of pressure from the community. Sometimes, it's even worse with irresponsible comments simply because it affects a proprietary project they're making money from, leading to conflicts and even absurd feature requests for the project. But they forget that you're doing this on weekends or even spare time to maintain it, and it's unpaid work, just your hobby and passion. I believe Github has lacked some important features to help protect maintainers of open-source projects from negative and irresponsible comments.

Note

I am deeply concerned for developers working actively out there under the large-scale open-source projects. Perhaps what they endure is far more than what I have experienced.

Contribution and Collaboration

Collaborating on open source isn't always as great as we think. When numerous pull requests are submitted to a project, maintainers have to review and check them, which consumes a lot of time and effort. Sometimes, you may have to accept subpar pull requests, but you can't reject them because you don't want to disappoint the contributors. This makes open-source projects messy and prone to conflicts. Additionally, contributor burnout is also an issue. When a project receives a lot of issues and pull requests, the time spent on reviewing and considering them by maintainers increases, making them feel exhausted and unwilling to continue maintaining the project, especially as more and more new projects are created.

Note

The time you invest goes unnoticed until a new feature emerges.

Profit

Very few people can make money from open source. This forces maintainers of open-source projects to seek other sources of income to sustain their livelihoods. This makes it difficult for them to focus on their open-source projects anymore. They, like everyone else, need to work, need to earn money to make a living, to provide for their families, for daily expenses. Meanwhile, businesses and individuals benefit from open source without having to pay the maintainers of the projects. Over time, it seems to become a given for everyone when looking at open source.

Note

Open source has killed many good ideas due to lack of support from funding sources, grants as well as the necessary investment for people maintaining or working on the main project. Sometimes profit and commitment to quality go hand in hand and greatly affect the ability of an open source project.

Open Source in AEC

Collaborating on open source in AEC becomes even more challenging when engineers lack experience with open source and do not understand how open source works. Additionally, limitations in technology, software engineering techniques, and coding knowledge make open-source development in AEC difficult. This can be seen clearly through a review of open-source projects in AEC, which are much fewer in number compared to open-source projects in other technology and software fields.

Furthermore, the lack of honesty and collaboration in AEC has made open-source development even more challenging. It comes with profits, risks that no one is willing to accept, openness, and sharing.

Open Source in My Life

I cannot imagine how my work would be without the assistance of open source. I can envision countless solutions, numerous remedies sourced from various open origins. It's truly remarkable to see some developers dedicating their spare time to crafting free applications, which in some cases surpass even closed-source alternatives. I have also felt the need to reciprocate, lest I feel unjust towards them.

I am not a businessperson; I am merely a developer who cherishes open source and enjoys venturing into novel creations. If you doubt it, just take a look at my GitHub. I have never attempted to steal anyone's job or violate core business principles through open source. I never harbored thoughts of becoming famous or wealthy through open source. I am merely a passionate individual who embraces open source through the lens of collaboration and sharing.

Note

The value that open source brings is invaluable, but it doesn't come from one source alone; rather, it stems from the combination of numerous sources coming together to create a complete product.

Good Things

Open source is like a place to scratch the itchy and academic problems. It helps you learn, share, and connect with others. It helps you create a better product, a better community, and a better journey.

I have connected with many good friends, excellent talents through open source. I have learned a lot from them, from how they code, how they solve problems, how they think. I have learned how to share, how to collaborate, how to respect others. I have learned patience, how to look at problems from different perspectives. So I really appreciate that, and I will never forget it.

Conclusion

Each of us has our own perspective on open source as well as life. Depending on the circumstances and time, viewpoints may change based on individual stances. It can change at any time, and so can I.

I do not deny that open source is not good, but it's not always good. Sometimes, you need to consider all issues from various perspectives to make the most appropriate decision for yourself. I also maintain several projects on GitHub in the AEC industry, and I do not intend to abandon them, but I will spend less time maintaining them. I also have my own business to focus on. I have seen many people leave open source for similar reasons to mine, and I hope they find the right direction for their decisions. I will always maintain a positive outlook on open source and continue to support the open-source community to the best of my ability.

I also found an author with a similar perspective to mine in the article "Why I quit open source." You can read it to understand more about the author's viewpoint.

My previous article :Open Source or Close Source I hope you can see the difference between the two.

I can put some crazy user I never know them..

• https://github.com/peppy
• https://github.com/antfu
• https://github.com/Jarred-Sumner - the guy created bun to replace node.js
• https://github.com/lucidrains

This article is interesting : https://web.archive.org/web/20210108083314/https://amasad.me/github