I would like to make it clear: I know very little about open source projects.

If I was asked to define open source today, I would say it is a principle that requires developers to make the source code to their project available for the public to view and/or edit. If I heard this term today, I’d probably think about relatively small apps that build upon existing big projects, like browsers or operating systems.

I decided to sign up for this class because in the past year, I have started using open source project more heavily both in my daily and “professional” life. As part of my Agile Development class, I learned to use React and NodeJS and only recently found out those are open source frameworks. I have also stumbled upon fun add-ons for my browser and MacOS, which also turned out to be open source. I guess it’s just cool to be able to see and pick apart the source code to these complicated projects, and contributing to one would make me feel like a real developer.

Pros and cons of open source

One big reason why I use open source projects — and what I think is their main advantage — is transparency. If your publicly available code boasts malware or surveillance features, the public is unlikely to use it, which makes the developers lose customers and, therefore, profit. Companies that sell their code and aren’t required to disclose what features they implement are less trustworthy to me, which is a win for open source projects.

Another benefit of open source vs. closed source is cost efficiency. I do not claim to know the ins and outs of the open source industry, but I would assume that if anyone (or almost anyone with few restrictions) can contribute to your code, then you need a way smaller team of full-time developers to maintain that code. Most of the open source projects I use have a DIY feel about them, which suggests to me that they are relatively simple and not super expensive to upkeep. In contrast, a fully formed team of developers — no matter how big — can only accomplish so much without an outside perspective.

A disadvantage that comes from that is you can’t make a lot of money on open source projects. Sure, you can attract investment, but if you aren’t able to sell your code (or plant data collection features in it to sell the data), then the code might become less profitable.

Also, if a project is successful and growing but the core development team cannot keep up with the growth, it could become challenging to maintain the code as there could potentially be too many contributors. For example, while Wikipedia’s contributions are not based on code, it still serves as an example of how its open source nature can backfire as there is not enough fact checking (in a code-based project, that’s debugging) from the core team.

That being said, here are a few noteworthy projects, in my opinion :

1. Maccy
   Maccy is an app that lets you copy multiple items (paragraphs, images, links, HEX color codes) to your native Mac clipboard. This add-on is extremely useful for writing anything: from code that has many similar or identical chunks to essays where it is handy to be able to play around with the order of paragraphs.
2. React
   React.js is a web development framework developed by Meta. I loved using it for my Agile Development class and further, because it is easy to install through NPM, and the code is intuitive. Learning React.js made me realize that while many open source projects are small, giants like Meta are also making them!
3. Censor Tracker
   Censor Tracker is a browser extension that tracks whether the website you’re currently on transmits data to the Russian government or is in agreement with the Russian government to provide your data upon request. For example, if you go to vk.com (a Russian state-controlled social media platform), the extension is likely to warn you. I am from Russia, so using this extension is crucial for my physical safety and to keep my browsing data away from the government.
4. VLC Media Player
   I have been using VLC Media Player since I was a kid and had a family computer. I still have it on my personal machine and have just found out that it is open source! I don’t have much to say about it except that I don’t even know if there is a closed source alternative to this amazing video player! I think this is a perfect example of an open source project taking up a lot of the market share in its particular field.

Looking into the future

Overall, I am excited to learn more about open source projects and can’t wait to contribute to one! The idea of being able to contributie to an existing, running app from anywhere in the world (even a NYU dorm room as a student, not even a professional) is enticing.