Open Sources 2.0

Chapter 2. Open Source and Proprietary Software Development

Chris DiBona

In this chapter, I present a perspective on the similarities, differences, and interactions between open source and proprietary software development.

Proprietary Versus Open Source?

Before you go any further, throw off any notion that the proprietary developer is somehow a different person from the open source developer. It is uncommon for a member of the open source developer community to do only open source for a living. Only the most prominent, or loaded, members of the open source community come close to having this kind of freedom. It is indeed rare to find a developer who develops only with proprietary tools and libraries. Even Visual C++ and C# developers benefit from a great variety of code and libraries that are free for use in their programs.^[1]

My career has focused on open source development for the last 10 years, and I’m constantly pleasantly surprised by how open source development and proprietary resemble each other. I believe this is because proprietary developers are educated by the adventures of their slightly crazy open source cousins, but I also know that open source developers have learned just as much from proprietary developers.

Don’t read this as an attempt to muddy the difference between proprietary and open source programs. They are different, sometimes very much so. However, they come from the same people, and they’re using a lot of the same methods and tools. It is the licenses and ...