The road is long, with many a winding turn, as the song goes. And the experience of open source development holds more than a few painful surprises: Failure, betrayal, discredit, shaming, envy... Time to reflect.
First there was hardware, and for some time things were good. Then Man realized he could abstract instructions from the machine and software was born. And he saw that it was good... But as humans like to share things, guided by their survival instincts, so they did with software; calling it free software. And then all hell broke loose. Since then there hasn't been one generation of developers that hasn't battled through the perceptions of what's considered proprietary and open source territory.
Open source is under constant debate, even today. Processes, contributions, methodologies are all up in the air and opinionated parties allow little breathing room for constructive planning. The continuous barrage of questions and opinions creates a confusing atmosphere to say the least. Under the burden major contributors will just vanish from the open source scene, like Monicans. And who can blame them? No one wants to deal with this noise forever...
Participating in the open source community allows you to have a unique perspective and a positive attitude that arises from the joy of creativity and collaboration; although only your peers may be able to share these views.
From the outside open source looks like a vague assortment of experimentation and ability; an indistinguishable mix of right and wrong. Everything seems without a plan and without a purpose. Many repositories are unmaintained relics and even those that seem active, there's rarely someone appointed to talk to or rely for support.
Even focusing on open source that's up to par, there's always the question why to support such efforts, if this software's future can't be guaranteed by any respected party, like a corporation or a government agency. With that mindset, there is truly little reason for outsiders to trust anything produced as open source.
There's a tradition of employers frowning upon their employees for contributing to open source projects. God forbid they release something they create as open source. For them it's binary: There's no business with no proprietary tech.
Other developers use open source to help them in protecting their innovation rights. Once something is public it immediately becomes proof of copyright. All open source licenses, even the more liberal ones, have copyright notices and require attribution for the work distributed. With patent trolls becoming more aggressive in the field of software, open source may as well be their Kryptonite.
Even the community plays a role in the fear factor. The majority is passive, just observing what is done without helping. In the common occasion that a request for a specific feature is made there's a good chance they will dis the whole project if their request is denied, regardless how valid the arguments are. This juvenile behavior is a side-effect of not appreciating software supplied for free.
Open source is not always guided by altruistic motivations. Non-profits sell-out to their sponsors, promoting languages, practices, services and products that are of debatable origin or quality but more importantly are developed with a false mindset; that is, creating software to promote the brand.
On a developer level, open source can be a cruel place where your work is being stripped out of your credit and you may see your idea resurface as a competing project. This theft is accepted by the utmost respected parties of the community as part of the nature of the beast. Open source appears to be a promotional vehicle for many developers, and in that regard public perception is all that seems to matter.
Meanwhile corporations think open source is a "game" they can step into any time they want, openly claim that they are aligned with it and everything good related to it, till they get a positive stride and then silently return to their proprietary schemes, that will statistically lead to a public outcry, only to repeat the same cycle…
Everyone wants to protect their own property while at the same time grant themselves the liberty to take advantage of the best open source that's out there. If open source had a voice it would constantly shout "rape". We are not being smart by doing this. Scavenging is in fact one of our most primal instincts.
While all this is going on a good chunk of the Web still runs on Linux using WordPress. That's because utility and availability will always dominate over features and quality. No one can deny the power of open source so it can't all be that bad, right? There must be a silver lining? True, but that shouldn't retract our attention from everything that's wrong. And it's easy to label people as hypocrites, liars or simply the worst. That's OK too. But hate is not going to be useful if we don't acknowledge a few things.
Those who leave open source may not be destined to be part of the community. Those who stay on the shallow waters splash and withdraw quite fast. Those who dive deep are the ones creating the waves. More than an idealogical practice open source is an open battlefield and like any other battle it requires strength, dedication and persistence. It's not about who hits a low blow, it's about who is the last one standing.
As for those that don't understand the point of our open source, those are the ones keeping us in check; so our work is always meaningful, always practical. This sanity check is stronger than any control a corporation or other hierarchical structure can apply. Trusting open source is like trusting that nature will find a way. It's out of our control, but that doesn't make it a lousy bet.
Whatever the reason you're into open source, either because you want to learn, you want to protect your ideas or you just like giving, do it selflessly. That's the best way to cope with the surreal that's ahead. Despite all the misconceptions, mistakes and shortcomings of the community it is our responsibility to be professional and take our open source work seriously. Because we want to be the ones creating the waves; we want to be the ones last standing.