Category: 1. Software Industry
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The New Closed Complement to Commercial Open-Source Software
Commercial open source firms make money by selling something that they don’t give away for free. If you’ve been following my writing or even attended my open source business workshop you know that I’ve been calling what companies sell the closed complement. Closed, because customers don’t get it for free, and complement, because it somehow…
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Why an open source requirement (“public money, public code”) is not enough for digital sovereignty
Open-source software can help digital sovereignty, but it is not enough. Many of the calls of open source enthusiasts, in my book, are even hurting, because they simplify and promise what can’t be promised. Myth: Open-source software will remove vendor lock-in and will make switching to alternative suppliers easy. Truth: All software locks you in,…
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![Best Practices for Work From Home: A Qualitative Survey in Open Source and Distributed Software Development [INFSOF Journal]](https://dirkriehle.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/10679-singapore-tiong-bahru-religious-offerings-300x150.jpg)
Best Practices for Work From Home: A Qualitative Survey in Open Source and Distributed Software Development [INFSOF Journal]
Abstract Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2020, companies switched to working from home on a large scale. Now, in 2025, many employees are working from home entirely or are only in the office irregularly. This has created a new working environment for many software professionals that resembles both the distributed software…
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The quotable guide to “why contribute to open source projects”
I provided the following quotes to the Open Logistics Foundation’s member magazine, where they were published in German and in somewhat modified form. Here are the original quotes. Managing your dependencies “Using an open source component creates a dependency on that component. If this dependency is important, the most effective way to manage the dependency…
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Options to have your open-source software and sustain it too
I’m just off a call with a public official discussing their options for an open source future. The topic was the domain-specific software needed by any agency, institution, or government (not generic office or infrastructure software). How to have software for managing health insurance, or school planning, or public transport to be open-source software? At…
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From data to action: Building healthy and sustainable open source projects (Dawn Foster, IEEE Computer)
I’m happy to report that the 35th article in the open source column of IEEE Computer has been published. As always, please consider writing an article proposal! Title From data to action: Building healthy and sustainable open source projects Keywords None Authors Dawn Foster Publication Computer vol. 58, no. 6 (June 2025), pp. 74-78 Abstract:…