How to focus my time on creating free/libre software but still survive?
How to focus my time on creating free/libre software but still survive?
Hi all
I've been working as a software developer for the past few years and frequently decided to leave a company/project myself because I could not find the motivation to keep working for it.
First, I was questioning whether software development was really for me. But in my spare time, I still enjoyed writing small useful tools, configuring my linux desktop and self-hosting.
I recently realised that my demotivation is mostly due to the kind of software I was working on for the companies I worked for. Usually building APIs to facilitate sales/marketing for products I don't really care for. Or configuring some unnecessarily complicated ERP/CRM microsoft stack.
Instead, I would like to work on software that I use myself. Or at least on something that will useful for other people in the future, not just boost the sales of some company.
But I'm not sure where to look. It seems like jobs focusing on free/libre software are difficult to find (Or I don't know how to look) and the few I find seem to be looking for senior profiles much more experienced than me.
Anybody have some tips or places I can start looking? Honesly I would prefer to just contribute to some project for free, but I don't really have the option to do so at the moment.
Thanks!
Seems like other people have the same question, but it does not seem easy to aswer...
8Make a list of foss companies you'd like to work for. Scroll to the bottom of their webpages and look for careers.
2I will definitely do that. Thanks for the suggestion.
2
I've seen a lot of people do it and publish YouTube videos of their coding. Generally they attach a patreon/etc to the channel and let their viewers take a vote towards what they'd like to see worked on from a list of options. That'd allow you to make awesome software for people to actually use and receive near real-time community feedback, as long as you're up to the spotlight.
5I did this during the pandemic! Made like $20 (one person) after a year.
It wasn't about the money. But more about doing something consistent and building a tiny community. We're friends on discord now.
3I think it would be really nice to do this actually. But I'm not convinced I could support myself in this way. Kudos to those that can though.
3
I understand your frustration; many of us have been there, myself included. After 20 years in engineering, I've come to realize a few things. The daily grind for a corporation can indeed be tedious and full of disappointments. Often, it feels like we're just completing meaningless tasks for someone else's vision. Our minds wander to our own projects and ideas, and it's tempting to start prototyping those instead of focusing on work.
This feeling of unfulfilled potential isn't going away because we can see how much better things could be. But here's what I remind myself: I am fortunate to have a stable job, even if it's programming mundane things for average needs. This stability allows me the luxury of working on my own projects after hours. Without this job, I'd likely be stuck in gig work, struggling with low pay and irregular hours.
So, I view the routine work as a necessary "tax" I pay to secure personal time for my own creative endeavors. It's a trade-off that provides income and stability, enabling me to pursue my passions on my terms.
4I do agree with your point of view. I actually did some project work which was even better paid than the stable jobs I've had before that. (I realise I'm lucky to have had the opportunity) But I can only keep up this kind of work for a while though, maybe 6 months max. I usually feel too tired to keep going, and have no energy left for my personal projects. It's not that it's too intense or difficult work, but just putting in 8 hours each day for things you don't care about really takes its toll for me.
My ideal project was something I worked for 2-3 days on average per week, but still got full-time pay. Not easy to find something like that though. I never really find any part-time software engineering positions. The best option is to join full time, show what you can do, and then ask for a reduction in hours. That's how I did it before.
1
You can always add "freemium" or service-based features to your tools and charge for those. Or you can set development milestones and raise money to pay for those features using bug bounties or something like OpenCollective. If you aren't sponsored by some big corp or just hoping donations will randomly come in (they won't!), those are the options.
You can also apply for grants and other funding from non-profits or govt orgs who may have some interest in your software project.
3I don't think there is any other way besides relying on donation from your users and that's difficult look how much Lemmy gets donations. you can try to get a job at companies that work on open source project like opensuse, redhat or canonical.
2Yeah, relying on donations is not that easy. I feel like it's more like top athletes: Only the top performers can live on it, for all others it's usually not enough to survive.
1
But I’m not sure where to look. It seems like jobs focusing on free/libre software are difficult to find
This hashtag can be used to search : https://mastodon.social/tags/FediHire And the videos of Andreas Kling could inspire you ? Andreas came out of rehab, gave up his job to work on his open source hobby OS and web browser based on donations : https://piped.video/channel/UC3ts8coMP645hZw9JSD3pqQ
2Thanks, that's a good place to start.
I'm continually amazed by how people can manage to bounce back from hardships and find something that works for them.
2
Check out Ardour and how the dev manages the site and find raises.
1Best you can do is work for an opensource company. That might take a lot of research (unless there's already a website for it). Otherwise you'd have to start a project and hope to get funding (e.g NLnet) from somebody. Unfortunately, there aren't many options at the moment 🙁 Until citizens vote for governments that make opensource preferable or even mandatory, the situation is probably going to stay the same.
1What I'm surprised with is that libre software is not more commonly utilised in goverments and libraries. For services that should provide open resources for all people, it would make much more sense to use similarly open software (and remove the overhead from paying for proprietary licenses)
2They'd still need to pay for support of libre software. But I'm convinced the major reason there's a lack of libre software in governments and libraries is that there is little to no marketing and no lobbying for it. It's basically word of mouth. Politicians can't make shady backroom deals with opensource vendors because those vendors are broke af.
Also a lot of opensource software doesn't have any support at all. It's basically a side project for many people with no commercial offering. Especially governments aren't going to sign on for something where the response to a support request is "PR welcome".
Finally, citizens aren't conscious of opensource, much less of its benefits. Most people I talk to don't know, nor care if it's on a political party's agenda. IMO, the biggest reason opensource is becoming more popular is digital sovereignty: not everybody wants to be a digital colony of the USA. Governments are realising the dangers of relying on USAian megacorps and the easiest way to get away from them is building upon what those megacorps did: opensource.
If the opensource community also got its ass into gear to proselytize opensource to their governments, friends, and family, maybe the transition could be faster.
1
Program in C or C++ and all is well.
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