Open source has many benefits:

- Everyone can contribute, so more people help the project, so it grows bigger and more bugs get fixed
- Users prefer open-source projects. In fact, many companies won't even touch a closed-source library, as there are significant problems with using closed-source software that open-source software doesn't have:
  - Users trust your project since it's fully transparent, users don't have to worry about it containing viruses
  - Users aren't blocked by bugs because they can directly edit your project's source code
  - Users don't have to worry about getting sued, since your code allows them to freely distribute and even sell it
  - Many developers won't any money at all on software, and will only use and support open-source based on ideology
- Lastly, the moral argument: it allows everyone to use your project. Keep in mind that some people are very poor, for reasons that aren't their fault, so they can't afford non-free software; and some people live in third-world countries, or have old devices or alternate OSs, so they can't use closed-source software even if it's free.

As you can see, there are many benefits of open-source, and not just moral ones but also practical: open-source projects get more support and more users. This is partly why even big companies like Microsoft open-source their products, and some of the largest, best options today for programming languages (Rust), operating systems (Linux), and 3d renderers (Blender) are open source. This is why DALL-E 2 (which was only released to a limited few) failed so hard compared to Midjourney and Stable Diffusion (the latter of which is completely open-source and runs on anyone's machine, and both of which allow anyone to use them).

Similarly, there are practical reasons for why you should take time and effort out of your day to contribute to open-source software:

- It boosts your resumè and employment opportunities: many employers look at open-source contributions to determine who to hire and promote
- It boosts your experience: contributing to open-source makes you a better, faster software developer
- It impresses your friends and colleagues
- It helps you in your job, since you almost certainly rely on open-source tools
- It helps you in leisure, since you almost certainly use open-source to relax. Even if you play closed-source games and watch big-budget films, those heavily rely on open-source. In fact, nearly every piece of software today relies on open-source, and this is particularly important since today's society is so reliant on software

Most importantly, remember that *I* am open-source and the product of many free contributions. If I wasn't released open-source, and so many people didn't take time out of their day to contribute to me, you wouldn't be able to ask me questions like you can now.
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