An Delicious Analogy for Open Source
At it’s most basic, open source is a set of values that surround software, most importantly that everyone has access, for free, to the source (core) code. Also importantly, open source encourages anyone that uses open source code to contribute back for the greater good of the project.
I run an Open Source bakery. Let’s call it “This is How We Roll”. I sell the most delicious cookies, cakes, pastries and breads. Since it is an Open Source bakery, I attach the recipe to each treat that I sell. I know that I add a little extra love to each item, so I am not afraid to share the recipes. I have excellent service, the cutest little shop, and the smell of sweets wafts out on to the street all day long and tempts people to come in. I consider giving away my recipes to be another value added service that I give to my customers.
Sally, a long time customer of mine, thinks that she can make better breads that I can. She opens up a shop down the street and calls it “BreadHead”. Sally takes all of my best bread recipes, and uses them in her shop. She sells her breads for a bit less than mine, but has less customer service as well. Soon, she’s got a pretty good thing going selling good breads for less, ahem, dough. Sally even comes up with a couple of great new bread recipes on her own, which she shares (along with the original recipes) in the spirit of Open Source. I particularly enjoy her challah bread, so I use her recipe in my store, using premium ingredients and charging a bit more for my level of customer.
Meanwhile, another customer of mine, Angie, comes in and suggests I start using coconut in the chocolate cupcake frosting, and DeWayne suggests that I add almonds to the banana cream puffs. I test out both recipes, and DeWayne’s suggestion is amazing! I start selling it, and I have customers lining up down the block. I call this recipe “Banana Cream Puffs, Version 2.0”.
My bakery selection just got richer and more robust, and DeWayne has gained a reputation as a great recipe writer. Since I used DeWayne’s suggestion to alter the basic recipe, DeWayne is now a “Core Contributor” - a highly respected place to be.
The original recipe I wrote was given away for free, and no one got paid to make it better. However, lots of people benefited - Sally is making good money over at “BreadHead”; my bakery, “This is How We Roll” has become more popular and is now seen as a market leader; and DeWayne is now a respected authority in almonds and is making great money as a freelance recipe writer.
There you have it - Open Source in a, well, nutshell. A simple analogy, but you get the idea.
(Note: This analogy doesn’t tackle many of the licenses that can be tacked onto Open Source code: GPL, MIT, CC, etc. These make this more complex.)
