Post Syndicated from corbet original https://lwn.net/Articles/959069/

The free-software community has managed to build a body of software that is
worth, by most estimates, many billions of dollars; all of this code is
freely available to anybody who wants to use or modify it. It is an
unparalleled example of independent actors working cooperatively on a
common resource. Free software is certainly a success story, but all is
not perfect. One of the community’s greatest strengths — convincing
companies to contribute to this common resource — is also part of one of
its biggest weaknesses.