How Can Governments Pay Open Source Maintainers? (shkspr.mobi)

submitted 3 days ago by mesamunefire@piefed.social to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 41 points 3 days ago

Isn’t it obvious?

Instead of having government rely on tech companies, it should just build its own solutions.

And those solutions would be open source and use open source dependencies.

It would then have a budget to donate to different projects given that it saves time by using other foss software.

[-] mp3@lemmy.ca 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think a good compromise is to include an open source maintenance fee on projects when used in a corporate or for-profit environment. Another option I like is to offer business support as a subscription.

It doesn't need to be super-expensive, but at least that would ensure some continuity for development.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

brazil did almost just that for a while years ago.

[-] why0y@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

No thanks.

Id rather never install something the government shipped "here ya go!"

And I think you're an idiot for suggesting that it would be okay

[-] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 days ago

Lol they meant the government should use FOSS, which would also be FOSS, so you'd be able to audit it and all even if you wanted to use their software (which you wouldn't need to unless you worked for the government)