It's the same reason open source reduces head count (something I predicted in the early 2000s and did see this come true years later).
I keep finding that it's surprisingly possible to fix the various bugs I encounter, once I decide to actually dig in. Even in languages I'm not an expert in. Available source + build system is worth so much.
Often the biggest hurdle is the mental one, to actually try.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen that done over the past 25 years, excluding myself. I can also count on one hand the number of times I've seen people build their deployed artifacts from source. These are actually related issues: if you've never built what you've deployed then you're going to be reluctant to make changes, build, and deploy. In theory open source can be much better than what it is, but in practice it's not much different than binary "blob + support contracts", and that's a shame.
codingdave•1h ago
But it is good to be reminded of such things, and even if this is kinda tech leadership 101, there is always someone seeing it for the first time.
benwerd•1h ago