The bus is coming

My recent emails have been making the case for open tools, but let me point out the elephant in the room: open-source is not free.

Someone, somewhere, is paying for it. In time if not in money.

A surprising amount of the software running the modern world is maintained by a tiny number of people, many unpaid, in their spare time.

The risk that comes from this has a name: the “bus factor”. That’s how many maintainers would have to be hit by a bus before the whole project collapses. Comforting, right? Sometimes that number is just: one.

It sounds alarming, but compare this openness to the opaque alternatives. When an open tool is fragile, you will see it: you can check who maintains it, how active it is, and how healthy it is. And you can fund it or advocate for it. Germany even has an agency that does exactly that. It pays open-source maintainers to keep critical tools alive. It fixes the fragility.

On the other, opaque, corporate side, you have a kill switch that you won’t see coming. You’ll find out about it when it’s used against you.

So, don’t choose your tools on price only. “Free” is not the real price. And put something behind the tools you really depend on: a few euros, a sponsorship, a coffee, or simply loud public support. It’s a lot cheaper than getting stranded.

Colin