The downturn - good for open source, not so good for coders

There doesn't seem to be any doubt that we're still not past the worst of the economic downturn. There are tech companies announcing job cuts everywhere. Some industry commentators have already suggested that developers finding themselves out of work during this time should start contributing to free and open source software projects while they're out of work.

On the face of it, that's a very good idea. It shows to any future employer that you've been keeping your skills up to scratch, and the evidence is publicly accessible — unlike the evidence for most claims made on CVs. One sticking point is that the projects coders tend to do in their spare time are ones that scratch a personal itch, rather than ones that solve a particular business problem. Adding a new module to an open source media centre project may not seem like good experience for creating CRM systems to someone who isn't able to read the code themselves.

Even with an enlightened, knowledgable hiring manager who can see the value of contributions to an open source project, this only increases your chances of getting a job if companies are looking for people with open source experience, and they'll only do that if they're planning large-scale use — and modification of — open source systems.

You can read a lot, both here on ZDNet.co.uk and elsewhere, about how people believe the downturn will be good for open source, often based on its zero acquisition cost. However, this also implies that companies are looking to save money, and hiring developers may be way down the list.

Open source is certainly better value for money longer term, and costs nothing to obtain, but I doubt if the benefits to businesses are going to be much help to coders in the short term. When the upturn comes, that may be a different matter, but if you're going to take advantage of low acquisition costs, the last thing you're then going to do is hire coders.