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Ask HN: Would you rather fund an open-source project or develop it in-house?
If you are a company - what would you choose? Building from scratch, or sponsoring an open-source project so that it is well maintained?
- uberman 3y agoIs the proposed software something that creates a competitive advantage or is foundational/plumbing? I'm not going to fund an open source project that would represent an even fleeting competitive advantage. On the other hand, I'm not going to pay to build an in-house CMS. If I had the money would consider spending it to support some open initiative. The rub I see though is that most startups don't have the runway to throw discretionary spending at open source.
- jqpabc123 3y agosponsoring an open-source project so that it is well maintained? Invalid assumption. There is no guarantee of any kind with open source --- not for maintenance or direction or control or support or schedule or anything. Open source makes demands but offers no real promises in return. If this is really a "critical" app and you need better control, I'd say you have no sensible/realistic option but to either built it yourself or at least maintain your own version of it. Lots of people have figured this out the hard way.