--- title: The Future of Open Source | daily.dev description: Scott Chacon, GitHub co-founder, argues that the term 'open source' has evolved beyond its OSI-defined meaning in popular usage, much like the German word... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Future of Open Source | daily.dev og:description: Scott Chacon, GitHub co-founder, argues that the term 'open source' has evolved beyond its OSI-defined meaning in popular usage, much like the German word... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NAgwIAdOV.png og:image:alt: The Future of Open Source og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Future of Open Source **[GitButler Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/gitbutler)** · 14 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Scott Chacon, GitHub co-founder, argues that the term 'open source' has evolved beyond its OSI-defined meaning in popular usage, much like the German word 'marmelade'. He traces the history from early free software through the GitHub era, then identifies two major challenges facing open source today: developer sustainability (maintainers burning out with no viable income model) and commercial viability (companies getting 'Jeff'd' by cloud giants using their own code against them). He advocates for the Fair Source movement as a middle ground for commercially-developed source-available software, collective funding mechanisms like the OSS Pledge, and a future where closed source becomes obsolete. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Before GitHub](https://daily.dev/posts/before-github-jjxtuvtbh) · Armin Ronacher · 95 upvotes · 5 comments - [Beyond the Code: Scott Chacon’s Predictions on the Future of Development, Open Source, and AI](https://daily.dev/posts/beyond-the-code-scott-chacon-s-predictions-on-the-future-of-development-open-source-and-ai-l0xijwnbc) · Codemotion · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The third decade of open source: New rules for developers](https://daily.dev/posts/the-third-decade-of-open-source-new-rules-for-developers-qibvnuqav) · All Things Open · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - ['Source available' is not open source \(and that's okay\)](https://daily.dev/posts/source-available-is-not-open-source-and-that-s-okay--pks9cflko) · Hacker News · 6 upvotes · 2 comments - [What does Open Source mean?](https://daily.dev/posts/what-does-open-source-mean--izy7w0uhv) · Andrew Nesbitt · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#licensing](https://daily.dev/tags/licensing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Future of Open Source","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T07:48:15.906Z","dateModified":"2026-07-26T07:48:47.060Z","description":"Scott Chacon, GitHub co-founder, argues that the term 'open source' has evolved beyond its OSI-defined meaning in popular usage, much like the German word...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/324e0d8bd73b735eb8254c7ffeae71a6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/324e0d8bd73b735eb8254c7ffeae71a6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"GitButler Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"GitButler Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--LrHsyt2T--/f_auto/v1692632054/squad_placeholder_sfwkmj","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/gitbutler"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-future-of-open-source-nagwiadov","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,licensing","timeRequired":"PT14M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GitButler Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/gitbutler"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Future of Open Source"}]} ```