Opinion Response: Open Source Software Not Always Best

By: Anonymous

Open source software is great. I use open source software every day, and some days I even work on open source software. The world wouldn't be the same without it. The idea, however, that "All free software [...] is inherently better than the commercial alternative" is rather overgeneralizing.

Closed source software is clearly better in some situations.

When is open source software better?

When used primarily by programmers, software is almost always best as open source. Text editors, libraries, linters, compilers, databases, version control systems, server-side operating systems — it would be weird to use ones that aren't open source.

Why? Because some users see how to improve it and spend dozens or even hundreds of hours working for free. A closed source company could spend thousands of dollars to hire one developer. A developer that doesn't really care, does what they are told, and does just enough work to get paid.

For this kind of software, closed source just can't compete.

When is closed source software better?

Closed source software is usually better when almost none of the users are programmers.

Perhaps one day everyone will know how to program, and open source software will finally win. Until then, our dependence on closed source software is inevitable.

My experience

I spent 4 months as an intern working for a very small company, on a simple, but well-made app. It looked nice, it worked well, and it was easy to use. It was also closed source, and charged a small amount per month for the full version.

I liked working there, but I wouldn't have spent my whole summer working on that app if I wasn't getting paid. My boss, the owner of the company, cared about the app, but also had to prioritize things like paying rent and eating. Like me, he wouldn't have spent all his time on it if he wasn't getting paid.

Maybe some of the users would have worked on it for free. I read the reviews though, and trust me: they don't know how to program. Most of them didn't even know how to spell. Even if they could, none of them could agree on what features they wanted. About half the reviews were just insulting other reviewers. Instead of relying on needing users who can program, we charged a small monthly subscription fee (which we would not have gotten in donations). Every month, each subscriber would pay enough to hire me for about half an hour (or a little less, if you count the price of snacks).

It's not a perfect system. I don't like paying for things. I'd rather everything was free. I'd rather everyone could freely edit their software, and we could all work together to make it better. But a lot of people don't know how. Instead, there is something else they do well, they get paid for it, and then they pay developers, like me, to work on the software they use.

Without being commercial and closed source, this app that thousands of people use wouldn't exist.

Design considerations

Open source software is almost always designed by people who can program. All programmers are used to certain functions and elements that many other people are not familiar with. Most open source software is complex, configurable, and extensible. I like this, but I also know how to program. I'm used to spending hours setting things up, looking for tutorials for particular versions, and googling until I find just the right element.

This process isn't for everyone. When my grandfather wants to make his email full-screen, he waits a month until I visit, then asks me to do it. He wouldn't be able to find a Linux distro (distribution software), install it, and then read a bunch of guides to figure out why it doesn't work. If I advised him to “read the source code!", he would say "what's source code?". He's worked his whole life to be able to pay someone to do the things he can’t do, which includes paying a company to sell him a computer that you can just turn on and use.

Closed source software often has a single, non-technical person directing design. Sometimes this is very bad, but sometimes it is necessary.

Overall

Open source software is often the best choice. It's incredibly important to my life, and to everyone's lives, even if they don't realize they are using it.

Sometimes, though, closed source is better. Maybe one day, everyone will program and everything will be open source. That day is not today.