Drew DeVault
Free software developer, founder of SourceHut, and creator of the sway window manager, the aerc mail client and the Hare programming language. He has worked full time on free and open source software since around 2018, first on donations and then through his company, and writes at drewdevault.com.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Drew DeVault did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsNo such restrictions are found in free or open source software licenses, be they permissive or copyleft – all FOSS licenses permit the use of the software for any purpose without restriction.
↗Copyleft licenses are not “restrictive”drewdevault.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsCopyleft does not impose restrictions, but it does impose obligations. The obligations exist to guarantee rights to the users of the software – in other words, to ensure freedoms.
↗Copyleft licenses are not “restrictive”drewdevault.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 years earlier
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Their wordsFree software is designed to be used commercially, but you have to do it correctly. This is a resource which is made available to companies who want to exploit it, but they must do so according to the terms of the licenses.
- 5 weeks earlier
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Their wordsAdding a dependency is a serious decision which requires consensus within the team, an audit of the new dependency, an understanding of its health and long-term prospects, and an ongoing commitment to re-audit them and be prepared to change course as necessary.
↗I will pay you cash to delete your npm moduledrewdevault.com
- 12 months earlier
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Their wordsThe fast route — venture capital funded — is going to impose constraints on your business that will ultimately make it difficult to remain true to your open-source mission.
↗A few ways to make money in FOSSdrewdevault.com 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsAnd yes, you are building a business. You need to start thinking of your project as a business and of yourself as a business owner.
↗A few ways to make money in FOSSdrewdevault.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 years earlier
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Their wordsBut the Commons Clause doesn’t present a solution for supporting open source software. It presents a framework for turning open source software into proprietary software.
↗The Commons Clause will destroy open sourcedrewdevault.com 1st of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsWhat should we do about open source maintainers not getting the funding they need? It’s a very real problem, and one Kevin has explicitly asked us to talk about before we criticise his solution to it.
↗The Commons Clause will destroy open sourcedrewdevault.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsA $250/mo recurring donation to would be a drop in the bucket of most businesses, but a major boon to any open source project, with which the business will almost certainly see tangible value-add as a result.
↗The Commons Clause will destroy open sourcedrewdevault.com 3rd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsEveryone who has contributed to the now-proprietary Redis modules has had their hard work stolen and sold by RedisLabs under a proprietary license.
↗The Commons Clause will destroy open sourcedrewdevault.com 4th of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsI do not sign CLAs and I think they’re a harmful practice for this very reason. Asking a contributor to sign them is a slap in the face to the good will which led them to make a contribution in the first place.
↗The Commons Clause will destroy open sourcedrewdevault.com 5th of 5 in this piece
- 6 months earlier
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Their wordsI like to say “one-time donations buy pizza, but recurring donations buy sustainable FOSS development”.
↗The path to sustainably working on FOSS full-timedrewdevault.com