Conversations with the hackers, leaders, and innovators of the software world. Hosts Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo face their imposter syndrome so you don’t have to. Expect in-depth interviews with the best and brightest in software engineering, open source, and leadership. This is a polyglot podcast. All programming languages, platforms, and communities are welcome. Open source moves fast. Keep up.
Open source is at a crossroads
This week we’re joined by Steve O’Grady, Principal Analyst & Co-founder at RedMonk. The topic today is the definition of open source, the constant pressure on the true definition of the term, and the seemingly small but vocal minority that aim to protect that definition. In Steve’s post Why Open Source Matters, he says “open source is at a crossroads” and there are some seeking to break the definition of open source to one that is more permissive to their desires, and they are closer than ever to achieving that goal. Today’s conversation goes deep on this subject.
Changelog++ members get a bonus 12 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!
Sponsors:
- Convex – Convex is a better type of backend — the full-stack TypeScript development platform that lets you replace your database, server functions, and glue code. Get started at convex.dev
- Statsig – Build faster with confidence. Startups to Fortune 500s rely on Statsig to make data-driven decisions. Ship smarter and faster with the unified platform for feature flags, experimentation, and analytics. Our listeners get free white-glove onboarding, migration support, and 5 million free events per month.
- Changelog News – A podcast+newsletter combo that’s brief, entertaining & always on-point. Subscribe today.
- Typesense – Lightning fast, globally distributed Search-as-a-Service that runs in memory. You iterlly can’t get any faster!
Featuring:
- Stephen O'Grady – Twitter, GitHub, Website
- Adam Stacoviak – Mastodon, Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Website
- Jerod Santo – Mastodon, Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn
Show Notes:
- Why Open Source Matters
- You can FINALLY use JSHint for evil with Mike Pennisi
- Introducing Infrastructure Manager powered by Terraform
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!
Timestamps:
(00:00) - This week on The Changelog
(01:05) - Sponsor: Convex
(04:24) - Start the show!
(07:29) - Recent events for context
(09:04) - Do developers even care?
(16:39) - JSHint project as evidence
(21:22) - The advantage of being "open soure"
(26:19) - The good will aspect
(30:41) - "Truly good coffee" as an analogy
(34:37) - Sponsor: Statsig
(38:06) - The open source definition needs to change
(43:00) - Help us AWS, don't hurt us
(49:01) - Microsoft's good will
(50:48) - AI licensing
(54:46) - Are devs becoming the minority?
(56:51) - Output is copyrighted?
(58:00) - 30% of my code is AI generated
(1:00:03) - Microsoft will indemnify Copilot users
(1:03:38) - Sponsor: Changelog News
(1:05:25) - Steve on predicting the future
(1:08:34) - The OSI maintains the definition
(1:14:27) - How to NOT bait and switch
(1:17:28) - How does Redmonk maintain credibility?
(1:22:13) - Wrapping up
(1:23:56) - Outro