Our software ecosystem has taken a wrong turn. Over the years, more and more applications have been pushed to the cloud—games, office tools, creative software... Almost everything has become dependent on cloud services. This trend is regrettable.

Why is it regrettable? Because we have lost true control over our data and tools. Every use requires an internet connection, and a slight disconnection renders them unusable. User experience has deteriorated, and privacy is no longer guaranteed. Moreover, this architectural pattern is extremely unfriendly to the open-source community.

What if we change our approach? Imagine—around the year 2000, we established an incentive mechanism that automatically allocates sales tax from electronic devices proportionally to open-source software projects that contribute to society. What does this mean?

It means open-source developers can receive continuous economic returns, rather than relying on donations and sponsorships to barely sustain themselves. It means locally-first (local-first) excellent software will be valued, with resources invested in ongoing maintenance and improvement. Those tools running on your computer that don’t depend on the cloud could become mainstream.

Although this system design comes a bit late, the emergence of blockchain and smart contracts makes such automated distribution mechanisms technically feasible. Perhaps we should seriously consider: how to redesign the incentive structure to truly foster a thriving open-source ecosystem and restore users’ software autonomy.