Should I Open-Source My Python App?

Key Takeaways

hey guys I got a Python open source question from Reuben on YouTube awhile ago I just wanted to cover it in this video so Reuben says quick question what if I plan on selling my desktop GUI should I worry about creating more competition for myself if I put the code on github so this is a question about open sourcing a commercial project I assume and whether or not that's a good idea so my thoughts are Reuben I would be very careful be very careful with that it sounds like you're actually selling the product and you're not selling support contracts right like for example this is the business model I guess that people made work with with Linux where well the kernel and and everything is is available for free essentially but companies and and consumers are in some cases paying paying distributions money to get the support you know this is how Red Hat works and how how people have been able to build successful business models in the open source world so I'm not saying this is impossible but it's also a completely different game so if you're selling this app right now let's say on your website you know it's a digital download people pay you a one-time payment they can download the application and then just use it on their computer because you said it's a GUI app so I'm assuming this is for download this is not a SAS application or software as a service application this could you know you could quite possibly create a competitor for your own application for yourself and I don't really see based on the information you gave in the context that you gave I don't really see the benefit of open sourcing this application you know it makes sense to open source it if you want to use it as a portfolio item of sorts I mean you wrote the app you know I'm not sure if it's if having the source out there is is so important you know it still could be an impressive project I'm not sure if that's a valid valid argument for open open sourcing it you are hoping to get contributors from the community you you know maybe you're hoping that people are gonna be submitting patches and maybe making improvements to the app and you can continue to sell it that would be a more valid reason but how likely is that right how likely is someone else to contribute to to a commercial product and essentially for free I'm not sure of that if the right incentive is there sure could you know could be possible again if it's more like a support support kind of situation where you're selling out the support or selling the support and not the actual product then this could work better but again like I feel like it's not you know based on what you said it's probably not like a valid reason to open sourced as as well now another reason could be that you just want this to be open source because you believe in what what that stands for and I can very much relate to that you know I have a couple of open source projects and I don't get paid anything for them I maintain them for free creates a lot of work you know reviewing stuff giving people feedback on their code people get angry if if I let their pull requests sit there for too long and and it you know it's it also creates work but you know I really I benefited from open source so I believe in giving back to the community and you know other ways would be to donate money but I'd rather coat some stuff and then just just give that away so so I can very much relate to that kind of thinking but on the other hand if you if you're building you know if you're building your business around this stuff I mean I'm you know I give up actually I give away most of my teaching material I give away for free here on YouTube and on my website and you know in social media and all these other outlets like I create a ton of free content that I just give away but there's some stuff that is closed source in that sense right where it is it is paid training and it is more in-depth stuff and it is things like things like my book or you know the managing dependencies course and and products like that I don't open sourced and I don't give them away for free I you know that's how I feed my family I want to make some money I want to you know this is what keeps the business alive I'm trying to give away as much as I can because I want to you know just make the Python community better but I also got to make a living somehow so I feel like this is really similar to to this situation here where you got to decide you know which parts where does it make sense to give these things away for free or open-source them and where where do you want to keep them close source because you're gonna invite competitors and in this case you know based on what you said I would probably be careful about open sourcing it because I don't see a huge upside to it and I only see a downside if this is like a one-off digital purchase product that you're selling right now I don't really see the upside of open sourcing it now if you're selling support contracts that could all change you know I'm not saying there's not a business model where this would make sense but based on the context that that I think that is implied here I probably not do it I would maybe do it long term if you stop maintaining the application or you know the it's it's it's outdated and you stopped selling the product at that point it would be sort of a nice gesture to open-source it so that that I can continue to to to exist in the future and other people can maintain it if they want it I mean okay so I just thought of one reason like a valid reason if if you open sourced it and the reason would be that you can say you know when you're selling your app you can say hey you will always let's imagine this is some kind of backup tool like I'd be really concerned about not having the ability to access my data at a later point in time and if if the author says you know if you say well this is open source you can then I would feel more comfortable being able to pull the source and make changes you know and make sure that I can get this to work again the future hire someone to do it if if you ever stopped maintaining it so that this could be like a small reason to like D risk it for your customers but you know you could also offer you know you could offer people to pay extra and then buy the source code that way and again that might also invite competitors and stuff but you know I probably not open-source it at this point because it's very hard to take back once it's open source it's gonna get for it it's gonna get copied you'll never be able to make it close source again it'll just be out there so yeah probably would be like I would be a little bit careful with that in your shoes probably not do it for now all right I hope this advice was helpful let me know how you decide were you gonna do and best of luck with your app yeah so if anybody else has a question if you have a question that you would like to get answered in a future video and just leave a comment below I'll try and do as many videos as I can here and and just give out free advice answer answer these questions because I really enjoy it and spin it's been pretty cool interacting with you know with everyone in the community and getting feedback and just getting better at doing these videos like actually I feel like I really enjoy you know doing these videos and just getting better at talking into the camera over time at least I hope I'm getting better anyway so click the like and subscribe button and stay tuned for next video after PI thinking