Reflections on the modern state of open source, commercialized libraries, developer incentives, and community dynamics.
You know, open source used to feel different. It’s always been about collaboration and solving problems together, obviously. That’s the whole point—building tools we can all use and learn from.
But if you look at the state of things today, the vibe has definitely shifted. You still have those massive, impactful contributions, but there’s also a huge wave of newcomers just trying to learn or experiment. And honestly? That’s fine. I think people forget that every little bit counts.
The real magic happens when someone just decides to fix a problem instead of complaining about it. You see it all the time: a dev hits a wall with some library, and instead of moving on, they patch it and share the fix. It’s a small thing, but it saves the next person hours of headache.
Take Vincent Voyer, for example. I remember when he added CSS Grid support to Expo Web. He didn’t have to do that. He noticed a gap—Expo apps needed better grid layouts on the web—so he built it and shipped it. Now, thousands of developers use that without even thinking about it. That, right there, is the actual spirit of open source: finding a problem that matters and just fixing it for everyone.
But let’s be real for a second—maintainers have it rough. It’s not just "write code and have fun." It’s a grind. You’ve got users constantly filing issues or demanding features, you have to keep the docs from falling apart, and you’re basically on the hook for security updates forever. It takes a lot of patience to keep a project alive when the initial excitement wears off.
Despite the burnout risk, the community is actually pretty incredible. I’ve seen senior devs spend hours on Discord or GitHub just helping total beginners understand why their code won't compile. It’s that collective effort that keeps the whole ecosystem moving.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to be a hero. Not everyone needs to be pushing code every weekend. Some people build, some people learn, and some people just use the tools. It’s all good. As long as the intent is there to help or improve things, it works.
Open source has changed, sure. It’s bigger and maybe a bit noisier now. But the core idea—learning, solving, and sharing—is still the same. Whether you’re submitting a massive PR or just fixing a typo in a README, you’re part of it.