I hear a lot of stupid arguments about open source. For example, this article is particularly flawed. Silly comments like “Not getting paid while seeing major corporations make hay from your volunteer labor both erodes good will.” is full of so many strange assumptions I don’t really know where to start unpacking it.
But… leaving all this aside, I do believe open source needs criticism. Well-founded, reasoned, criticism. Criticism on points of culture, on diversity, on where the open source cultural method is failing, on what open source doesn’t do well. Any movement needs this kind of refreshing of the dialog so that it can improve and, as it matures, help it tackle the next generation of issues it needs to solve.
However, for many years I believe we have seen a failure of informed criticism of open source. I can find many who herald open source as a wonderful movement, but I do not see healthy criticism. Without it, open source risks being stuck and not moving on, which can very well be not only damaging but eventually terminal for the movement.