[_7fvc]

I think software ecosystems are currently infested by corporate interests. I feel kinda funny for saying this. It sounds like some kinds of left-wing politics. But software has become increasingly consolidated. There're 5-10 companies in the US that drive most of its development. They even picked up the most popular open source projects. When you're part of an ecosystem, your objective is to work the system. Making software has lower priority.

It's extremely hard to make money being an independent software developer. There's a lot of noise and money in the market. It's hard to compete with marketing from big companies. You have to work for a corporation or a startup with funding. You have to be part of an ecosystem. When you are accepted to a program like YC, you win an entry to an ecosystem.

Can you be a software artisan nowadays? Can a small team develop and sell software without having an ecosystem behind it? I've seen some examples of this, like Ruby on Rails, 37signals. But they are rare exceptions.

I'm currently working on an open source project. Let's see how long I can be independent for. Check out my project :)

https://github.com/vidalab/vida