Top of the big era

When facing laymen, Zhou Buqi can talk a lot about open source, but in front of industry elites like Lu Qi, he can only ask for advice humbly.

Obviously, Lu Qi's words gave him a deeper understanding of the open source community.

Zhou Buqi said: "Are you saying that we shouldn't really use the free idea to target open source products?"

Lu Qidao: "After all, there are still a minority of engineers who have ideals and enthusiasm for code. More people still write code for the purpose of making a living. In the past, we all thought that the open source community was a free public space... Of course, This is okay. Most open source communities are purely public welfare and are free. However, if we want to make more use of the open source community and make good use of the millions of developers on Gitgub, then There should be a new way of thinking. After all, our promotion of the construction of open source communities is not for public welfare, but also has huge commercial factors.”

Zhou Buqi narrowed his eyes, "We need to allocate funds for our open source project."

Lu Qi nodded and said: "Google has unparalleled influence in the open source community. If it is a free service, to enjoy the fruits of labor of engineers with enthusiasm, ideals and beliefs...the first choice of these people must be Google. Here In terms of technology, it will be difficult for any technology company to compete with them.”

Zhou Buqi also felt that it made sense and said: "It's really like this. If it's free, most of the open source developers will go to serve Google. There will be nothing left on Ziweixing. In this case, why not spend it? Point money."

Lu Qi continued: "In this world, some of the top Internet projects are generally only affordable by China and the United States. Excellent engineers from Europe, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, India, Brazil, and Russia, even if Those with strong technical skills rarely have opportunities to show off their talents. Most of them go to Silicon Valley to pursue their dreams, so these people have a strong desire to show off their technical talents. Demand is the core external force in building an open source community.”

Listening to what he said, Zhou Buqi had a deeper understanding of the open source community on the Internet.

This is a kind of self-recognition and self-fulfillment.

This is just like how many people write articles, reviews, and serial novels on the Internet.

It’s not about how much money you can make for a living.

Rather, we need to do things that allow us to have a social presence, and leave some visible and tangible traces of our own existence to the world. It’s not like they come and go like wild geese, and they live a lifetime as if they have never been in this world.

However, if there is a certain amount of financial stimulation during this process, it will be more effective and attractive, and it can form a trend-like trend and allow more talented people to participate.

For example, Toutiao, one of the core products of Ziweixing.

If the above articles are all free, of course there will be many writers involved, writing articles regardless of compensation, purely out of hobby. But after all, the number is too small, and there is competition. Many bloggers may choose other platforms to publish articles.

If a commercial approach is adopted and a certain amount of payment is made for the fruits of labor, the appeal will be even greater.

Even if it’s just to earn some pocket money?

The income from pocket money is also a reflection of the value of the fruits of one’s own labor.

More importantly, there are only a few developed countries in the world, and most places have low economic incomes. Even if many talented people are trapped in objective circumstances, it is difficult to make any big money.

Pocket money in the eyes of some high-income groups can become an important income subsidy for these people in their lives.

In modern society, only through commercialization can we achieve scale.

Profitability is the driving force.

Sure enough, Lu Qi then elaborated on a similar point of view, "There are many IT engineers in South America, Central and North America, India, and Central and South Asia, but their incomes are extremely low. The year-on-year income is even one-tenth of that in Silicon Valley. Less than that. If it is an open source project, it will be even lower.”

"Do you have any data?"

"In Silicon Valley, the price Internet companies pay for a line of code can reach 20 US dollars. But open source is different. There is no social insurance, no company benefits, no management costs, and you don't even need to pay for ineffective work. You are billed directly by the results. . You can adopt a bonus system, and you can only get money if you make a substantial contribution to the open source project; if you don’t make a contribution, there is no bonus. The cost of a line of code can be reduced to less than 1 dollar.”

"One dollar is quite high, right? It's not much less than in China!"

Zhou Buqi vaguely remembered Guo Pengfei talking about code costs.

In domestic first-tier manufacturers such as Ziweixing and BAT, the cost of a line of code independently written is about 3-4 US dollars, regardless of large batches of copy-pasted code.

This is the cost paid by the company.

What real employees receive may be only $2.

In addition, there are many open source projects in the open source community. Developers can choose what they like, are interested in, and are good at participating in. When working in a company, they have no choice. With the option, you might be able to write 100 lines of effective code in a day, but without the option, you might not even be able to write 50 lines.

Calculating it this way, it’s actually about the same.

Lu Qidao: "Yes, this is also true in China. Many programmers' wages are very low. Even in China, because the number of engineers is too large, it is difficult for many engineers to find jobs that match them. Being able to participate in open source projects and earn some extra money, this Income can change their lives to a great extent.”

"Well, China is training IT engineers in a standardized and streamlined way."

When it comes to China, Zhou Buqi knows it all too well.

The domestic education system is too strong.

Coupled with the large domestic population and the computer craze in recent years, the country has cultivated a large number of IT practitioners, and the number is shocking. "There are more wolves and less meat", which leads to the wolves being worthless and being eliminated early.

Many IT engineers in Europe and the United States can work until they are 60 years old and still write code.

It’s almost impossible at home.

The 35-year-old limit is already showing.

When a programmer reaches the age of 35, if he cannot be promoted to management, he will most likely be eliminated by the market. Even if a 35-year-old employee with strong skills has an annual salary of only 150,000, the company will lay off and hire a new graduate with weak skills and no work experience but an annual salary of 200,000.

Because the former has lost its imagination.

A fresh college student, that is, in his twenties, has a bright future and is full of imagination. Even if you are a little immature for the time being, there are endless possibilities in the future. Even if it's a little worse now, it's possible to create tens of billions of value for the company in the future.

This has caused many outstanding engineers in China to encounter the dilemma of finding a career.

I even changed careers at the age of 35.

All your skills are wasted and have no use.

That's such a shame.

If the open source community is attractive enough, you can use your free time to participate in several open source projects in the open source community, and then earn some open source project allowances... which is also a lot of money. This is especially true in places like India, Southeast Asia, and South America. The wages are pitifully low, which is much crueler than the domestic industry status quo. If they have the opportunity to make dollars in the open source community, that's a huge draw.

If Ziweixing International changes its promotion ideas for open source projects from a free model to a "bonus" incentive model, it can attract more outstanding IT engineers from around the world to participate, and everyone can work together to promote the improvement and optimization of Ziweixing's open source projects. .

Lu Ji said: "I believe that there are many excellent engineers hidden in many countries, but they may not have the opportunity to come to Silicon Valley to work in Silicon Valley if they have the technical ability. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the open source community, certain talent screening can also be carried out. Once they appear, "If we create new open source leaders, whether they are Indians, Colombians, Vietnamese, or South Africans, we can issue job visa invitations and provide them with opportunities to work in Silicon Valley."

Zhou Buqi closed the coffin and said conclusively: "Okay, let's do it! Next is the era of artificial intelligence. If you want to train top large models, the efforts of the open source community must be indispensable. The long-term competition with Google will have a negative impact on the open source community." The use of it is an important means for us.”