The Rift Between Open-source and Commercial Software Is Not Irreconcilable


The most notable thing that makes the development of commercial software and FOSS different is the culture of being product focused vs. one of sharing.

“What can we engineer that makes us the most money and sustain?” vs. “I love this thing I made, I’m sure there’s someone out there that finds it cool”.

I’m probably being unfair with the “makes money” part (disclosure: I work on commercial software all day), but you get my drift - feel free to replace it with “gets the most users to stay” or “gets the most word out” etc.

However, all that is not to say that one culture of development is better than the other, but I do think that acknowledging the difference is important for developers and aligned personas to appreciate different motivations better. While the former leads to coherent product experiences, the latter leads to crazy (good) experiments, creative masterworks and worthwhile alternatives to drab experiences.