For quite some time, I have felt some unease at the public discourse around OpenSource. In the past few years, we have seen a growing discourse around the sustainability and security of the large body of OpenSource software.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/24404539

If we combine these two sets of data^1 we obtain a fascinating result^2.

  • 46% of all code out there, in every app, is maintained by hobbyists
  • 13,8% is maintained by “I sometimes get a bit of pocket money for my code”
  • 40% of all code out there is maintained by an industry-paid person

So, nearly 60% of all code being actively shipped in an app or product in the wild is hobbyist-maintained open-source.

See also this discussion on lobste.rs on the economics of the average (as in median) open source project:

https://lobste.rs/s/ftwkvo/hobbyist_maintainer_economic_gravity

To sum up, apparently most open source projects are small, and aren’t funded as paid work. And they matter because of their number, which has the effect that they make up a large part of all software in use.

  • CallMeAl (Not AI)@piefed.zipEnglish
    1·
    3 hours ago

    Yes, 100 projects from the Fat Head would make sense.

    Do you have any way to establish that these 100 more often come from the Long Tail?

    • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgOP
      1·
      3 hours ago

      I think it is very likely a few very big components and many, many very small ones.

      This is a very common pattern. But that is hard to verify without examining all these components.