The economics of open source
summary
JavaScript’s package registry is owned by npm Inc a VC‑funded company, not the community, and that control means no public accountability over removal policies, naming disputes (remember Left Pad), or registry features despite the CLI being open source; central storage costs run on servers and data gives owners leverage. History: node in 2009, npm spun into a company around 2013, leadership changes in 2018. A new project exists: Entropic a federated package manager with a CLI, file API, Dockerised mirrors and GitHub login but it’s month‑old and not yet ready.
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chapters (28)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:46The economics of package management
- 1:35you are in this story
- 6:37open-source doesn't mean open ownership or control
- 8:47the package registry is centralized
- 9:05centralization has advantages
- 11:10centralization of costs
- 11:24servers cost money who pays for them?
- 13:15founding a company was a novel choice
- 16:31those large numbers sure are large
- 17:46open source generates a lot of value
- 19:06open source vs free software
- 20:07capitalism loves open source
- 21:44the language spec
- 22:11our common registry of shared code is owned by a private company
- 22:45what are the consequences of private control?
- 24:23the registry is what matters not the clients
- 24:48there is no trust without accountability
- 24:59you had no way to hold me accountable
- 25:27so is npm evil? mu. ask a different question.
- 25:39npm is a financial instrument
- 26:16npm Inc is a means for turning some money into more money
- 28:16It's 2018. Packages flow like water.
- 29:10make money or raise money by telling a story about spending money to make money
- 31:55imagine npm run by a non-benevolent entity
- 32:43I agree with Ryan Dahl
- 33:54entropic a federated package manager
- 34:29new cli & new api decentralized: many registries
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