Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software Highlight

Jacob Thornton, the developer who cocreated Bootstrap, suggested that open source is, instead, “free as in puppy”: Open-sourcing something is kind of like adopting a cute puppy. You write this project with your friends, it’s really great, and you’re like, “OK, like I’ll open-source it, it’ll be fun! Like, whatever, we’ll get on the front page of Hacker News.” . . . And it is! It’s super fun, it’s a great thing. But what happens is, puppies grow and get old, and pretty soon . . . your puppy’s kinda like a mature dog . . . . and you’re like, “Oh my god, so much time is required for me to take care of this thing!”