2y ago

[Answered - it's rare but it exists] Is opensource advocacy a job?

And how could one get paid to do so?

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No it's not. You just keep telling all your friends and colleagues how your operating system is superior.
The very few opportunities to be paid to promote open-source were all one-time events like hacker expo.
- This might be something the linux foundation should invest in :/
  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  
  I don't think they will, there are thousands of people already doing it for free, you'll likely find one such person in any mid-size business wiring up your network cables.
  You'll have much better chances to get paid if you provide some business model how to contribute to open-source software while keeping your profits flowing, because the business is all about competition and keeping things secret, and there are very few successful businesses based on open-sourcing their work.
  
  I think the "for free" isn't working out too well outside of servers. Desktop linux has minimal market share (even though it's growing) and has grown a lot thanks to many users unknowingly using it with the Steam Deck - Valve hasn't had ads for SteamOS or linux... ever?
  And that's just Linux. Opensource in general is basically unknown outside of somewhat tech literate folk. We need dedicate marketing and advocates to spread it in public institutions (schools, governments, utilities, etc.), make people aware that there are more options than before, get more branding, and definitely more awareness for those using opensource for the time to understand that a lot of it is made it free time. Many people see "oh it's free" and still expect dedicated support with comments like "why don't you just", "I have this bug, I demand you fix it", and so on.
  Free advocacy leaves it in obscurity for most of the world and it will either stay that way or change very very slowly.
  
  Educating users is much needed effort for open-source community, it's also an unpaid and thankless job.
  Google had made a huge progress by providing many schools with Chromebooks, but their target is profit and locking users into Google Docs, the fact that ChromeOS is Linux is just a coincidence.
  Again, when you try to make some university buy Linux-based laptops, there will be Windows and Mac advocates popping up immediately, because the person making the decision usually gets the business side of things but not technical side, and Microsoft representatives will have convenient PowerPoint slides how their office suite is the industry standard and how you'll save lot of money later if you buy their Windows laptops now, with preinstalled MS Office, and they will give you a discount too.

15 comments