Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Happiness in Open Source
Search
Armin Ronacher
May 09, 2016
Programming
2
500
Happiness in Open Source
A talk about how to make open source work without destroying your soul.
Armin Ronacher
May 09, 2016
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Armin Ronacher
See All by Armin Ronacher
Runtime Objects in Rust
mitsuhiko
0
220
Rust at Sentry
mitsuhiko
0
250
Overcoming Variable Payloads to Optimize for Performance
mitsuhiko
0
100
Rust API Design Learnings
mitsuhiko
0
400
The Snowball Effect of Open Source
mitsuhiko
0
280
Mobile Games are Living Organisms, Too
mitsuhiko
0
180
We gave a Mouse an NDK
mitsuhiko
0
660
Debug is the new Release
mitsuhiko
1
520
A Future Python
mitsuhiko
0
2.6k
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
Revisiting the Hotwire Landscape after Turbo 8 @ RailsConf 2024, Detroit
marcoroth
3
610
The test code generator using static analysis and LLM
mikik0
1
250
TypeScript 関数型スタイルでバックエンド開発のリアル
naoya
49
16k
Deep Dive into React Stream/Serialize
mugi_uno
4
870
Timeline エディター拡張入門
yucchiy
0
460
ペパボOpenTelemetry革命
pyama86
2
1.2k
Documentation testsの恩恵 / Documentation testing benefits
ssssota
1
570
Productivity is Messing Around and Having Fun
hollycummins
1
180
The Design of Everyday APIs - PyCon 2024
roguelynn
1
210
Powerfully Typed TypeScript
euxn23
4
1.7k
Using "modern" Ruby to build a better, faster Homebrew
mikemcquaid
2
290
Embedding it into Ruby code
soutaro
2
380
Featured
See All Featured
What's new in Ruby 2.0
geeforr
338
31k
From Idea to $5000 a Month in 5 Months
shpigford
377
45k
Optimising Largest Contentful Paint
csswizardry
13
2.4k
The Mythical Team-Month
searls
217
42k
The Invisible Customer
myddelton
114
12k
Designing for humans not robots
tammielis
247
25k
Keith and Marios Guide to Fast Websites
keithpitt
408
22k
Responsive Adventures: Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners of Front-End
smashingmag
245
20k
What the flash - Photography Introduction
edds
64
11k
The Cult of Friendly URLs
andyhume
74
5.7k
GraphQLとの向き合い方2022年版
quramy
33
13k
Rails Girls Zürich Keynote
gr2m
91
13k
Transcript
Happiness in Open Source Armin Ronacher
Me • Armin Ronacher (@mitsuhiko) • Open Source Person •
Flask, Werkzeug, Jinja, Lektor etc. • Now working on Sentry
Interrupt Me
Getting There
The Trigger • Bought a book by Gregor Lingl: “Python
für Kids” • Stumbled upon the German Python Forum • The former administrator recommends Linux and with it Ubuntu
Back in Time • 2004: Ubuntu was released • the
first version of Linux I could actually run on my desktop. • Little bit of PHP Hacking • --> ubuntuusers.de
Going with the Flow • Ubuntu exploded. You could actually
see yourself making a “difference” • got a contribution into ubuntu directly: a simple wallpaper and some translations
Growing Big • Founding of the German ubuntu society •
Scaling website to multiple servers • The politics start
Why did it happen?
Hermagor • My Hometown • Population: 1.500 • People with
an interest in technology: few • Enter the internet
Next Step: Programming • Diving into Python development • learning
real programming • Getting in contact with other Python developers (Georg Brandl)
Learning • Jinja -> Templates without Django • Copy pasting
code over, trying to improve it • Learning on IRC from a guy who actually knows parsers.
Release • First implementation was crap • Did not stop
me from publishing it though • What is a license?
Open? • You can do whatever you want with it.
• Wrong
Stumbling Blocks • Jacob Kaplan–Moss sends me a mail that
some of the leftover code from Django in Jinja is missing the License declaration. • Learning on Licensing
Communication & Culture
People • There is a difference between IRC and RL
• Textual communication can be a problem • IRC/mail does not transfer emotions • Different cultures
Licensing • Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, bad,
bad, bad, bad, AAAAaaaargh • And you can seriously hurt yourself
Goals • Often you don't want what others do •
And that might not even be obvious • Learn to say no
Why do it?
Why Open Source? • Fun • Rewarding • Networking for
shy people • A common ground
Learning • I learn by failing and communicating with others.
• If it wasn't for the open source community I wouldn't be able to find people to talk to. • Cross language / border
It pays off • Learning new things • Getting introduced
to interesting people • The thrill of working together • Happiness when you see your stuff being used
Staying Motivated
Use It • You can only build things you use
yourself • Let other's chime in when you stop using it • Stop using it if you find something better / you need to use something else
Be More Boring • Sometimes it's important to stay boring
• Don't get carried away by the latest trends • Don't overstep the original goals
Licensing
BSD or GTFO • All popular Python modules are MIT/BSD
licensed with the occasional LGPL one • Commercial modules are very, very rare • GPL libraries ends up being mostly unused • Why?
Forced Contributions • “99% of useful code contributions come from
people who are motivated to participate in the project regardless of what the license tells them they have to do.” — Steve Streeting
Money: Case Studies
Making Money • Selling the software? • Libraries vs Applications
• Selling support? • BSD/MIT/zlib
Flask • Impossible to sell • However an amazing way
to bootstrap a career • More than possible to sell consulting
Sentry • Open Source not Open Core • Puts us
where others cannot be • Bootstrapped
Thank You
Contact • Armin Ronacher (@mitsuhiko) • http://lucumr.pocoo.org/ • http://www.getsentry.com/