I found this claim surprising. I would have guessed that the narrow majority of software produced these days is open source, but I don't have a citation for that. Do others agree with the article's "vast majority" claim?
How do we know this to be true? Has anyone checked?
Coding since mid-80's, never worked for a company that would allow me to publish work related code, with exception of my time spent in research institutions.
I bet this applies to the large majority of developers out there, but I am extrapolating.
Does it really need to be checked? Seems blatantly obvious to me that most software is proprietary.
Well 30% of websites alone run WordPress, so I could look at the source code. I'm not sure it's as blatantly obvious as you think it is.
If 75 million sites are running Wordpress, I think that counts as “closer to 1000 (because Wordpress is large) than 75,000,000”.
Most of it? The hardware, OS, web browser, window manager, terminal emulator, and text editor all are, anyway. There are a few proprietary bibs and bobs, but really not that many.
> Go and check all gadgets in your house which contains a microcontroller or cpu, how many of those can you get the source code for?
My impression is that most of this IoT-type devices run Linux of some variety. They might have some proprietary stuff on top (though not a ton, given the GPL), but that seems to be basically another check in the "open source" column.
> Ask your car manufacturer for the source code of all its systems.
Well, it's a Toyota, so it's running Automotive Grade Linux, so…
> Does it really need to be checked? Seems blatantly obvious to me that most software is proprietary.
It doesn't seem blatantly obvious to me, but it's interesting to hear your perspective
Do you realise most people's primary computing device - their phone - is running open source Linux?
"you’re in a minority if you’re using linux or some variant of it as your OS"
Ultimately the point you made here is what's important: that there is plenty of closed source that runs the world, even if underlying infrastructure is open.
Do you have a smartphone? Is it LineageOS microG and F-Droid applications or postmarketOS? Maybe something else from quite a limited list [1]?
I use Linux, there is much more software for Windows and it is not open source.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_mobile_pho...