67% of open-source devs code at work

in brief While many employers are concerned about how much their staff use Facebook or Twitter in work hours, a report has found that approximately 67 per cent of open-source developers spend some work time writing applications unrelated to their employment.

In some cases the amount of time doing free-time projects was extreme. The Evans Data Open Source Software Development Survey of over 350 developers also found that 16 per cent of those developers spent more than half of their work hours developing those applications.

"It may be a discouraging thing for employers to hear, but developers working on open-source projects can become very involved with them and may find it hard to completely leave them alone when they're on the clock," said Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin in a statement. "And few open-source developers make much money from their apps — 65 per cent report they make next to nothing for their open-source work, and they have to support themselves."

The report was quick to note, however, that these developers still manage to get their projects completed on time or ahead of schedule two-thirds of the time.