The ugly, bad, good and great aspects of 30 years in open source

In this talk I talk about open source as a concept, how I got involved in open source and how it changed my life. I tell the story from my own perspective highlighting the good and bad sides of open source but also about how I was able to turn our business into an open source company that contributes to, learns from and adopts with the open source community.

If you are an open source contributor or your company is using open source technologies, this session will be a perfect for you! I will shed light on the dark corners and pains in open source, but I also highlight the financial benefits, market leadership and satisfied customers.

Transcript

1. The ugly, bad, good & great
   aspects of 30+ years in open source
   

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2. You use open source
   • Your mobile phone
   
   • Your car
   
   • My TV
   
   • …
   

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3. How I got involved in
   open source
   

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4. 1981 - Commodore 64
   • My first computer
   
   • Great for playing games
   
   • My first encounter with programming
   

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5. 1981 - Commodore 64 / 2
   The beginning of the end
   

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6. 1992 - IBM OS2/Warp
   • 1st (part-time) job as developer
   
   • Working on OS/2 Warp
   

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7. 1995 - Windows 95
   • August 24, 1995
   
   • Windows 95 was released
   

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8. 1995 - Linux
   • My first Linux
   
   • 3 months required to compile my kernel
   
   • Picked up Perl
   

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9. 1996 - Tina Linux User Group
   • Joined a Linux User Group
   
   • Learned more about Linux OS
   

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10. 1997 - SUN Solaris
    • Had my first job as “web developer”
    
    • Building web shops in Perl
    
    • Running the website from my “desktop”
    

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11. 2001 - PHP
    1st exposure to PHP
    

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12. 2006 - First contribution
    Contributed a typo in the Zend Framework documentation
    

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13. 2007 - ZendCon
    International PHP community
    

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14. 2007 - PHPBelgium
    Started a Belgian PHP community
    

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15. 2008 - PHPBenelux
    Joind forces with phpGG in the Netherlands
    

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16. 2009 - Founded In2it
    A company created from open source
    

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17. 2009 - First conference talk
    I talked about SPL at the Dutch PHP conference
    

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18. 2010 - Zend Bug Hunt Days
    A bug hunt I will never, ever forget
    

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19. 2010 - PHPBenelux Conference
    Our very own PHP event in Belgium
    

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20. 2015 - My 1st composer package
    I had an itch to scratch and others had that same itch
    

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21. 2019 - In front of you
    So here I am: still talking, still contributing and still sharing
    

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22. The ugly parts
    

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23. You’re the cause of all evil
    • death treats
    
    • stalking
    
    • weird stuff in the mail
    

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25. The bad parts
    

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26. Expectations and delivery
    • Expected to deliver on SLA
    
    • Provide no funding
    

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29. every time I send some thing you say it is the wrong email address and I know it
    is not the wrong email address and I was not born yesterday and I was born 53
    year's ago and you better not say the next email I send you better not send it
    back to me any more because the next time I send one you better send it and If
    you do not send it the next email address you get will be from my Lawyer and
    that is a promise and If you do not what that to happen then the next one I do
    send you just better send it as of right now and that is an order and If you do not
    send it you can and will be shut down for good by my Lawyer and that is a promise.
    

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30. every time I send some thing you say it is the wrong email address and I know it
    is not the wrong email address and I was not born yesterday and I was born 53
    year's ago and you better not say the next email I send you better not send it
    back to me any more because the next time I send one you better send it and If
    you do not send it the next email address you get will be from my Lawyer and
    that is a promise and If you do not what that to happen then the next one I do
    send you just better send it as of right now and that is an order and If you do not
    send it you can and will be shut down for good by my Lawyer and that is a promise.
    The same scenario occurs for me: a small but important number of users lose the
    data in the session arrays (but not the session itself) - I believe when the protocol
    switches from http to https. I have tried many times on many machines to
    replicate it; so far of the customers I have been able to get data from, it seems
    they are all running IE6 on Windows XP, but that could easily just be statistical
    probability. I've tried to replicate the problem using the exact same IE version
    number, with no success. I can't tell how many people this is affecting, exactly,
    but I can tell that it's costing us money.
    

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31. The good parts
    

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32. You provide value
    • To yourself
    
    • To your peers
    
    • To businesses
    

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33. The great parts
    

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34. Return On Investement
    • You become the expert in the field of your
    project
    
    • You show your professional evolution with
    your code for everyone to see
    
    • You learn how to manage and work with
    other developers
    

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35. What can you do?
    

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36. Help a project forward
    • Use it
    
    • Provide feedback (report issues)
    
    • Fix typos in documentation
    
    • Write documentation
    
    • Solve issues (send in PR's)
    
    • Talk about it at events
    

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37. Start a project yourself
    • If you have an itch, scratch it
    
    • Allow people to contribute by providing
    good guidance
    
    • Keep your passion
    

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38. Sharing is caring
    Thank you
    

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