. Net open source free lunch is over?

1. Preface

last year 10 month ,IdentityServer The two creators and maintainers of Dominick Baier and Brock Allen announce , Their current business model is inherently unsustainable , So they will use a reciprocal Public License （Reciprocal Public License,RPL） The paid license model , And in a new company Duende Software I offer you IdentityServer5.

In the near future , Microsoft announces their ASP.NET 6 The template will continue to contain Duende Of IdentityServer Dependencies .IdentityServer It used to be a loose use Apache 2.0 Licensed free open source products , And is ASP.NET Commonly used by developers OpenID and OAuth 2.0 Token tool , So over the years, Microsoft has ASP.NET The template always contains the library by default . Now , Microsoft's popular templates include IdentityServer The annual income is required to exceed 100 Million dollars of users pay at least 1,500 A license fee of $ .

.NET The community responded to this announcement with great grace , They carefully consider themselves in supporting independent software vendors , promote .NET The role of open source ecosystem in innovation and development , And identify IdentityServer Collect license fees in the form of annual fees , Thus, the behavior of maintaining the code base is very desirable , Because it's better than the maintainer abandoning the project .

However ,.NET People in the community fell into panic , They asked to be with .NET Open source software managers discuss some of the code contained in the templates . The worst problem is ,.NET The real manager of the open source software ecosystem is Microsoft .

Now , Around Microsoft 、IdentityServer And free and paid “ Open source ” There are endless discussions about software , So I decided to discuss it in this article .NET The free lunch of open source software is over , What it means to the user .

2. The heart is weak, the snake swallows the elephant

Whenever you see people abusing free / IPOs Underpricing / Unauthorized resources , I will think of a saying ： The heart is weak, the snake swallows the elephant .

Although stealing a candy from a small shop won't be prosecuted , But if someone robs a bank , Then they will be brought to justice .

Speaking of open source , If the maintainer only needs to support a small number of users , And the requirements are very similar , So the cost is not high , But once the project reaches a tipping point , Moreover, the user's requirements exceed the maintainer's willingness to provide , Then one side must pay the price .

IdentityServer Our users are really greedy . In the last ten years , majority IdentityServer Users are greedily enjoying free dinner , Now here comes the bill .

It's not hard to imagine , This Microsoft post （https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/32494） Various views have emerged in ：

1. This is an essential service , Microsoft should buy Duende, And again free of charge IdentityServer;
2. No one reads Duende In the pricing terms of “ Any annual income less than 100 Any company or non-profit organization with a total of million dollars can use it for free IdentityServer” The provisions of the , So many people are complaining ;
3. Is still Apache 2.0 Free and open source IdentityServer4 Contribute , It's so hard ;
4. Maybe Microsoft should use other products instead IdentityServer, for example https://github.com/openiddict/openiddict-core , or https://github.com/simpleidserver/SimpleIdServer , So the free lunch can continue , Until these projects also encountered with IdentityServer The same sustainability issues .

For Microsoft, some templates include IdentityServer, Instead of including the use of RPL The core library of clauses , People's reaction is also absurd .

When suddenly developers are asked to pay annually 1,500 dollar 、4,000 Dollars or other expenses to buy “ It's about business ” The service of , They immediately began to cry for poverty .

Need to know , The expertise of developers can't be bought with money , And buy a good one 、 Tested by actual combat 、 Well documented 、 Highly reusable solutions , For example, it is built by domain experts IdentityServer, Not only is it much cheaper than paying developers to do it yourself , And the risk is low . If key issues such as authentication and authorization errors go wrong in the application , It will certainly cost you dearly .

If you are the head of the company's software field , And for Duende Just a few dollars in licensing costs , Then please do me a favor , Quit and leave , Because you are not qualified for this position .

I suspect that some people on the Internet complain about licensing costs and poor pretend , It has nothing to do with the cost , It is related to the purchasing department .

3. The dissatisfaction of the purchasing department

Open source technology is spreading so fast , And one of the biggest reasons for such great value is , No permission is required , Anyone can use 、 Use 、 Modify and redistribute reviewed open source software , Without considering the departmental budget .

however , Once maintenance personnel start charging , As compensation for their expertise and experience , Then the developer can only negotiate with the purchasing department , Get approval to buy these products .

The existence of the approval mechanism of the procurement department is to thoroughly investigate the performance of each supplier in the supply chain “ risk ”. Usually the purchasing agency will not produce any meaningful results , It will only make the transaction between the two sides more expensive and difficult , Therefore, software developers do not want to be involved in this link .

about .NET This dilemma for developers , I am not particularly sad . After all , This is mainly their fault .

4. Free lunch over

Although you can always use open source projects for free , But once they decide to charge , You will be at their mercy .

Just IdentityServer for , I think the new version of the payment terms has been very generous ： Yes IdentityServer Support for open source software will continue until 2022 year 11 month ！

Change to other items , May give up completely , Let users live and die .

Open source software in .NET Increasing popularity in the ecosystem , And this trend will only accelerate over time , therefore .NET Sustainability issues will be more common in . A few years ago , Microsoft used to bear all the expenses for users , And provide a free library , The result is only .NET The ecosystem is in a mess , We can't do it again .

Free lunch is over , Please wake up .

When you choose various packages and technologies to maintain and build .NET Application time , You should be prepared to pay . Because this is the only way to avoid future accidents and supply chain shocks ： Cost it now .

You should develop the habit of contributing value to upstream dependencies , By contributing directly to the projects you use 、 contribution , Or something better , Buy value-added products and services from maintainers . in addition , You can also use blog posts 、 Videos and courses to help promote their projects . If you use a product in your business software , Then we should give back in various ways , However , Most users do not choose to do so .

Establishing a good exchange value cycle with open source software projects is “ Open source sustainability crisis ” The inevitable result of , Everyone can benefit from this . therefore , Start now , Contribute to open source projects , Because the sustainable development of these projects will eventually touch your own interests .

Original author ：Aaron Stannard Original title ：.NET Open Source: What Happens When the Free Lunch Ends? Link to the original text ：https://aaronstannard.com/dotnetoss-free-lunch-ends/ translator | Meniscus Coordinating editor | Ouyang Shuli | Produce | CSDN（ID：CSDNnews） Title of translation ：.NET The free lunch of open source is over ？ Translation links ：https://www.sohu.com/a/472062543_115128