Open Source in 2026
More code is open than ever, and fewer people are paid to keep it alive. Something has to give.
Priya RamanAugust 23, 20266 min read
Open source won. Almost every product you use is mostly made of it. The uncomfortable part is that the maintainers of the libraries the world depends on are still, overwhelmingly, unpaid.
This year's licence changes, foundations and sponsorship schemes are all attempts to fix the same problem: the value created is enormous and the money reaching the people creating it is not. None of the fixes are complete. Some are working.
The pragmatic advice for any company is unchanged and still ignored: list the projects you depend on, fund the ones that would hurt if they stopped, and do it before they stop.
