--- title: Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog description: A brief pointer to Avery Pennarun's essay 'The Gift of It's Your Problem Now', which frames free/open source software as a gift — with all the obligations and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: A brief pointer to Avery Pennarun's essay 'The Gift of It's Your Problem Now', which frames free/open source software as a gift — with all the obligations and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1EmLyT6Bd.png og:image:alt: Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog 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. # Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A brief pointer to Avery Pennarun's essay 'The Gift of It's Your Problem Now', which frames free/open source software as a gift — with all the obligations and expectations that come with receiving one. The author anticipates pushback but endorses the perspective regardless. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Programming used to be free](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-used-to-be-free-ceydkqepr) · Lobsters · 53 upvotes · 16 comments - [Who Is Open Source About?](https://daily.dev/posts/who-is-open-source-about--4qy1qidcc) · Planet Python · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Write some software, give it away for free](https://daily.dev/posts/write-some-software-give-it-away-for-free-jl8u6eowb) · Hacker News · 52 upvotes · 6 comments - [A Rousseauian Analysis of Free Software](https://daily.dev/posts/a-rousseauian-analysis-of-free-software-ihadrvmmd) · Stefanos Baziotis · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd) ```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":"Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:54:06.806Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:07:17.199Z","description":"A brief pointer to Avery Pennarun's essay 'The Gift of It's Your Problem Now', which frames free/open source software as a gift — with all the obligations and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--1KxV4ohY--/f_auto/v1722860400/public/Placeholder%2007","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ipSpace.net 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":"ipSpace.net Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xS7E82MT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438303/logos/ipspace?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-free-software-is-a-gift-ipspace-net-blog-1emlyt6bd","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source","timeRequired":"PT1M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ipSpace.net Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Worth Reading: Free Software Is a Gift « ipSpace.net blog"}]} ```