this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2026
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Why does Google sponsor free open source software? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Valnao@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google sponsors open source software through the Google Summer of Code.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code

Some projects that benefit include:

  • Open Street Map

  • Organic Maps

  • VLC

  • LibreOffice

  • Gimp

  • Debian

Why do they do that? Google is one of the world's largest corporations.

Isn't this... very suspicious.... ? Is their goal simply to fuck with Adobe and Microsoft executives?

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[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 54 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Several reasons:

  1. Reduce claims of them being a monopoly, Google can point to OSM and OM as an alternative to Google Maps, meaning they will face less risk of sanctions toward them for monopolizing the market for maps.
  2. PR, Supporting FOSS projects is great PR, brings a friendlier face to them.
  3. General interest from management, Google is a tech company, they have management with technical skils and interests, there are probably a few of them who are interested in the future of a project due to personal usage.
[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've also seen claims that Google uses OSM to validate their map.

They don't want to use it directly because they would have to give attribution, but they can use it in automated internal processes to identify where it differs from Google Maps (including which data source is more recent) and where there are significant differences they can get their team to look into it.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

That makes me wonder if either GM or OSM have map traps....

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 19 points 1 day ago

Cynically? To keep the FTC and regional equivalents off their back by funding their competition (Mozilla, for example).

Genuinely? There are possibly a few teams within the behemoth of Google that actually do want to support the green software they use. The value of that support is probably small enough to be hidden in a departments costs so doesn't get noticed by the pigs in command.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

because it's cheaper to do summer of code training than to recruit good engineer

[–] 0ndead@infosec.pub 9 points 1 day ago

So they don’t have to pay devs or other vendors

[–] fiat_lux@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Because they're using them in their products, or the non-public infrastructure that keeps the product running, or their teams are using them internally.

Check the licenses of the projects you listed. If they allow free commercial use, you can assume those products are key to the software somewhere.

Don't underestimate how much of big tech is made of OSS - companies will always take free stuff. They pay them because if the projects die or are compromised, so are their paid products.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

I'm not sure about OSM but with Android, the story has always kinda been a mixture of buying political favor by doing sth good for society and creating trust in the ecosystem; because the ecosystem of android cannot simply be shut down by one company (google) going down, app developers have a greater confidence that the platform will still exist in the future and are therefore more likely to develop apps for it; which again benefits android and therefore google.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 day ago

What everyone else said, plus they also get to use that code.

If not directly then conceptually.