I’ve been running a side project for a bit over 1 year. Shortly after launching I posted a ShowHN thread to showcase it. While the feedback was positive, the main complaint was that the tool is not open source.

For months I was on the edge wether I should open source it or not, my main concern being that someone would “steal” the code and sell it under their own brand.

Eventually I caved and decided to risk it. If someone takes the code and builds a better business out of it so be it.

Super excited about it, I started spreading the word that the tool is going open source and … radio silence. It got some stars and a couple of forks, but I don’t think anyone actually browsed the code or anything.

It made me wonder: this whole “I’m not using this tool unless it’s open source” is nothing more than hypocrisy? Because I don’t think those people actually go through the source code to make sure it’s safe or anything.

For me, the only benefit I see in a tool being open source is that I could build it and run it myself for free. Other than that, I couldn’t care less.