Developer Competition is Heating Up

lob.com

17 points·bsiddiqui··7 comments

API are useful and have their place, but nowhere near implied "API or die". Same for open source.

I'd say offering "free" services is a powerful business and will become even more powerful model to crush overpriced competition, grab their customers and monetize the traffic and brand visibility. This model will evolve more and more.

Regarding open source - 90% of github is full of junk, and open sourcing does not necessarily mean any kind of success. It's a case by case.

The irony of your statement just blew my mind. I wonder what perspective you're invested in where your statement makes sense.

Could you explain where it the irony is the GP's statement?

Did you have a particular statement in mind? Given that the comment was several sentences long, it's not clear to what you are referring.

Perhaps the part where he says businesses misleading their customers with free software will be more successful than free software. What a great business strategy, misleading your customers. Nobody has thought of that one.

I could pick it apart more but that would be cruel.

There is such things as "free" software, that so far, has done really well. The example that immediately jumps to mind is the "Free-to-play" game. You download the game for free, but you can buy stuff to enhance the game via micro-transactions.

90% of GitHub is supposed to be junk. Maybe an even higher percentage would be correct. Little to no friction is the point, and even so, the junk that's on GitHub has nothing to do with the success of open source. This is unlike the commercial closed model, where reputation of failed or junky projects can be harder to shake.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com