The world has come to rely upon the free work of millions of skilled software developers—the maintainers of free open-source software (FOSS) projects. But the world hasn’t given them a tip. While it’s ...

It isn’t the person making the contributions—it’s how easy the contributions make it to use the software. “Nobody cares if you contribute.” That’s what a Postgres friend said to me during lunch at ...

Open source makes the technology world go ’round, forming as much as 90% of the modern software stack via frameworks; libraries; databases; operating systems; and countless stand-alone applications.

Danish physicist Niels Bohr is often quoted as saying “Prediction is difficult, especially about the future.” While it might be hard to make accurate guesses about what is coming up, looking ahead at ...

Arguments about what is and isn’t “open source” are often resolved by deferring to the Open Source Initiative (OSI): If a piece of software is available under a license rubber stamped as “open source” ...