I stand by my statement: open source has not only saved our lives but also our souls.
I want to clarify that when I say “we,” I’m specifically referring to us programmers.
The Life Part
In a disconnected, closed-off world, we would be programming alone, or in the best-case scenario, in a small team. The complexity of any modern application would be unattainable, forcing us to build every aspect from scratch, with only the operating systems offering assistance.
This situation would turn every project into a monumental task, every small request into a major challenge, and, consequently, our apps would be plagued with (mostly infrastructure) problems; our lives would indeed be miserable.
The Soul Part
As humans, we find so much of our identity in what we do: we yearn to feel useful and meaningfully connected to others. This is why we collaborate! It’s our species’ superpower! However, it’s a double-edged sword, as it might “bind” us programmers to feeling responsible for the entire life cycle of an application. In the scenario of non-open-source, this would mean dedicating our lives to a single application. In fact, being a professional would entail nothing less than serving that singular entity, as history has taught us. The inherently creative nature of our profession demands new challenges and horizons. Open source makes this possible!
In Conclusion
We are living in an extraordinary time to be programmers: we have exceptional open source products propelling us towards project success, and we have remarkable opportunities for impact and learning at the same time. This truly feels like the best era to be the authors of applications!