To choose an instance, is to choose who we trust | March 2025

Most of us fail to imagine that businesses will be willing to pay for something that is freely distributed.

Yesterday, I had a chat with Vincent L., developer, owner-member of the cooperative 24eme[1], a software development agency working with freely distributed software only.

A few points from our conversation:

• using freely distributed software rebalances power between clients and software providers (to the advantage of the client).
• if 24eme shuts down, or if clients are no longer satisfied with 24eme, clients can hire other developers to carry on maintaining software 24eme has used, or clients can internalise the work by hiring developer.
• Vincent tells me it is a good thing when their clients hire developers to work on software 24eme has developed; it pushes the developers of 24eme to be more transparent, more diligent in documenting what they do, not to take shortcuts - so other developers can join in to maintain - and improve software 24eme develops. Having external developers as contributors is a remedy against regression; it helps 24eme’s developers progress.
• using freely distributed software also rebalances power between employees and employers; developers can quit and carry on working on the software they’ve gained expertise on and developed.
• other organisations in the industry can use software 24eme has developed for their clients; these new organisations might have new needs, pay for new features, then all users can benefits from improvements.
• Vincent tells me that some organisations are afraid to adopt freely distributed software; they are afraid that their competitors will adopt the same software; conversely, it is easier for organisations to adopt freely distributed software when software is not the core of their value proposition.

24eme maintains the software signaturePDF[2]

• friends of 24eme, and others, maintain instances of signaturePDF.
• a number of other organisations use signaturePDF; I don’t remember how many.
• an organisation, Logilab, adopted signaturePDF and has paid 24eme for the development of additional features.

On the organisation 24eme:

• 24eme is run and managed by developers.
• there is no project manager.
• clients communicate directly with developers.
• there is no single point of contact.
• all developers must be apt to respond to clients’ enquiries.
• 24eme is a registered cooperative.
• transparency is key
• all administrative documents, including bank account statements, are public[3]; Vincent tells me it is key for trust, within the organisation, and with clients. Clients can see what they pay for; and what others pay for.
• When it comes to paying for the development of freely distributed software, clients, if they wanted to, can see which commit they paid for.

Quote I liked:

[To choose an instance], is to choose who we trust.[4]

PS: an instance is a server running a freely distributed software.

[1] https://www.24eme.fr/
[2] https://gh.owo.si/24eme/signaturepdf
[3] https://github.com/24eme/administratif/blob/master/README.md
[4] “C’est choisir à qui on fait confiance”