Let me start by saying, I’m no authority in this space.

I haven’t contributed to any open source projects (yet!). I’m learning as I go, reading, tinkering, asking questions.

But I keep getting asked about open source a lot as I share my intentions about shifting my gaze, attention and efforts towards it:

  • “Is it really safe if anyone can see the code?”
  • “Can’t people just steal the work and sell it?”
  • “How do you make money with open source if its free?”

All fair questions, so i thought I’d try and break it down. Not from the lens of an expert, but as someone also trying to understand it better.

open source means open code - not open chaos

Open source simply means the source code of a software project is made publicly available. More that this, theres an open invite to collaborate and improve upon the code. Granted sometimes whats shared in repos is utter chaos, but, anyone can inspect it, suggest improvements, or even build on top of it…depending on the license.

So that doesn’t always mean it’s a free-for-all. There are clear rules and licenses in place. These protect (or at least should protect) the work while still encouraging collaboration.

why this matters to me?

With closed, proprietary tech:

  • You often can’t see what the software is doing with your data.
  • Companies can change terms overnight, lock you out, or shut things down entirely.
  • You might be tied to a single provider with no easy way out (a.k.a. vendor lock-in).
  • Features are designed around what makes money, not always what’s good for users.

With open source:

  • You’re not locked in. You can move, adapt, or host it yourself.
  • There’s a global community keeping watch—not just a corporate boardroom usually looking out for stakeholder interests first
  • It’s more resistant to exploitation, manipulation, and surveillance.

Proprietary software plays an important role, no doubt. It often brings polished user experiences, strong commercial support, and competitive advantages that drive innovation.

But more often than not, it does come with trade-offs.

As a user/consumeer, you may be giving up a level of transparency, privacy, or control. You don’t always know what’s happening under the hood. And you may not have a clear way to move your data or truly understand the system you’re relying on.

And these days with algorithms heavily influencing what you see on social media platforms, we are the product.

“If anyone can see the code, it must be less secure.”

Actually, it’quite the opposite. More eyes on the code means more chances to catch problems. Open source software tends to be more transparent, auditable, and easier to trust—because there’s nothing hidden.

“People can just steal the code.”

Open licenses spell out exactly what’s allowed. Many require anyone who reuses the code to give credit or even share their changes back. So yes, open source is legally protected—but it doesn’t stop someone from copying your idea and building something similar. That’s the tradeoff. It encourages sharing over hoarding, and collaboration over control.

Open source isn’t flawless, I’m sure. But from where I stand it strives for and promotes values that center on openness, collaboration, and user freedom.

And that’s a pretty good foundation to build on.

It’s also a more ethical choice for me, and it feels worth leaning into.

a note on AI and open source…

There’s growing debate these days about how large AI models (Openai, Meta, Gemini) are crawling and scraping open source work, without credit, support, or contribution back. It’s a legit concern I feel. Their models are trained on, powered by, and profiting from the work of thousands of open-source contributors.

It’s a big topic, worth exploring in more depth. But it raises a good point that open source doesn’t mean unprotected and accountability in the AI age is something, I suppose, the open source world will still need to figure out.