The Linux Foundation reveals the “ugly” secret of how open source is draining your budget

The New Stack

by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

February 25, 2026

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The Linux Foundation has revealed a critical insight into the often-overlooked financial impact of open-source software. While companies actively investing in open source by contributing back to projects see significant returns—ranging from 2x to 5x on their investments—those treating it as “freeware” often face costly consequences. The report, *ROI for Open Source Software Contribution*, highlights that organizations relying solely on open-source code without giving back incur substantial technical debt and duplicated engineering efforts. These challenges lead to avoidable expenses, with some companies spending millions annually on workarounds due to misaligned project roadmaps. The study found that nearly half of all organizations maintain private forks of open-source components, averaging 86 forks per company and consuming over 5,000 labor hours per release cycle. This practice not only creates technical debt but also shifts long-term maintenance burdens, as companies trade short-term expediency for ongoing costs. Additionally, misalignment between open-source project goals and specific functionality requirements costs organizations an average of $670,000 annually in workaround efforts. The report underscores the importance of contributing back to open-source projects rather than merely consuming them. By investing in upstream contributions, companies gain significant economic value, as noted by Frank Nagle, the Linux Foundation’s Chief Economist. He explained that for every dollar spent on sponsoring a contribution or attending an event, organizations receive

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Originally published on The New Stack on 2/25/2026