Building and Maintaining Large Open Source Communities

11/19/24 • 45 min

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast, Gregory Kurtzer shares his experience in creating and guiding multiple open source Linux operating system projects.

Have you ever wondered why there are multiple Linux distro projects in the open source ecosystem? What goes into creating a distro once you have access to the kernel? Gregory shares his experience creating multiple projects, and shares how the motivation and process were different every time.

Also, have you thought about what would've happened if Linus Torvalds had went on to work for a corporate organization as opposed to the Linux Foundation? Well, for a little while he did, and that caused a big disruption in the ecosystem, open source and commercial alike. This example shows very well why you cannot leave the control in other companies' and individuals' hands, when you have hard dependencies on open source projects, and also gives you a hint why single-vendor projects are significant risk factors.

Learn more about why and how community has been key to the success and longevity of the Linux kernel and operating systems to reach the popularity and significance they have today, why non-code contributions are crucial to the sustainability of the ecosystem, why your open source project needs marketing and ecosystem development, and more.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience podcast, Gregory Kurtzer shares his experience in creating and guiding multiple open source Linux operating system projects.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

How to Successfully Argue for Open Source Investment

We can establish that if you are using any (semi-)modern digital infrastructure or applications, then you are depending on open source software. Have you ever thought about that as actual dependency? Considering that you are not neglecting the building blocks of the software solutions that you are creating and selling, why do you do that with your open source dependencies?

Learn more about why you have to invest in open source projects and how to decide what level of involvement you should have in each from Stephen Walli.

Find out what drives companies to open source projects that started out as InnerSource, without the intention to open them up to the world later, and what happens when you don't let your developers work on open source projects anymore from Clare Dillon.

Learn how to explain open source involvement to people who are fearful and sceptical about it from Wayne Starr. And listen to Wayne and Stephen to talk about how they and their companies are using SBOMs, and why you need to think more about using those for packages that you need to build, or hardware, before you apply the concept.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Are Legislations Good or Bad for Open Source?

Governments around the globe have been recognizing that open source code is a core dependency in every modern software solution. Whether or not it is a good thing that is still a question. But one thing is for sure, if you are involved in an open source project or selling a product or service that depends on one, this will affect you!

In the commercial world, when something goes wrong with a product or service that a company provides, the company is liable for damages. So, what happens when a solution that contains open source code fails? And especially, what happens if the bug or vulnerability was introduced by the open source component? Who is liable? Is it the developer? Is it the open source community? Is it the company who used the code? Or?

In this episode of the My Open Source Experience Podcast, Ildiko and Phil are chatting with Amanda Brock. Before becoming the CEO of OpenUK, Amanda used to be a lawyer. With that background, it is no surprise that she keeps a close eye on the legislations and regulations that governments have been creating around open source. The group talks about this ongoing work, and how this affects people and companies in the ecosystem.

In this episode, you'll learn more about topics, such as:

CRA (Cyber Resiliency Act)

PLD (Product Liability Directive)

The challenges with some of the current regulations and what to look out for

It is crucial to help government officials and regulators understand the methods, processes and dynamics of open source communities and overall ecosystem. Everyone who's part of this ecosystem plays a role in educating those who don't have the expertise and the experience, including YOU!

Amanda's books: https://amandabrock.com/books/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.