Blog: Blog Post: 7 Reasons Why You Should Open Source Your Code!

[nelsonic]

We need to write a post explaining to people how/why Open Source is the future.

Why do some of the biggest & most successful technology companies Open Source so much of their code? How do they use open source to their advantage?

• List all the successful commercial organisations that have open-sourced their code
  • All of Redit is on GitHub: https://github.com/reddit/reddit
  • Facebook: React, HipHop
  • Google: Angular, Polymer, Chrome, Android
  • Twitter: Bootstrap, Typeahead (auto-completion)
  • AirBnB: https://github.com/airbnb
  • Uber: https://github.com/uber

Both the Guardian and FT main front-end web are 100% open source on Github:

• Guardian: https://github.com/guardian/frontend
• FT: https://github.com/Financial-Times/next-front-page

List of Engineering blogs: https://github.com/kilimchoi/engineering-blogs

Need:

• [ ] great intro image
• [ ] which companies are open sourcing their work
• [ ] explanation that the power of the platform is in the network effect, brand and useability
• [ ] Myths: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2603133/opensource-subnet/debunking-the-top-open-source-myths.html
• [ ] Top open source companies (useful list) http://thevarguy.com/open-source-application-software-companies/top-50-open-source-companies-where-are-they-now
• [ ] Business models for Open Source Software companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_open_source

  Reading

• http://tylermcginnis.com/my-biggest-benefit-of-open-source-wasnt-what-it-was-supposed-to-be/

[hdrdavies]

:+1:

[iteles]

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2608897/open-source-software/walmart-s-investment-in-open-source-isn-t-cheap.html

[nelsonic]

That article does not go into any detail on where the money went... the fine people who built Hapi were all highly experienced contractors who command eye-watering day-rates. what the article fails to point out is that the ROI for Walmart is 10-100x because what they got was a scalable, maintainable & performant system that comfortably handled the load it needed to on their busiest shopping days. The fact that they now have a mature framework used by many other teams is not emphasised enough in the article... also the comments ... muppets!

[nelsonic]

Great example of why open-sourcing all learning materials leads to better quality materials: https://github.com/dwyl/learn-nightwatch/issues/51 shows how the Community is helping each other without any involvement from the "original author(s)". 😍

[tunnckoCore]

Not to forget the biggest closed, most hated and most bad company in the universe - Microsoft - open-sourced some of their products last year and two. :) (and still going more and more open source)

[nelsonic]

https://github.com/jpmorganchase/perspective + https://github.com/jpmorganchase !! via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16317124

[nelsonic]

Good thread on security of OS vs Closed: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/4441/open-source-vs-closed-source-systems We should include a paragraph on security.

[tunnckoCore]

Hey, here's one more pretty fantastic post about OSS

https://medium.com/@ken_wheeler/a-bitter-guide-to-open-source-a8e3b6a3c1c4