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You've already been compensated with massive amounts of free, open source technology that you use every day, probably every time you interact with your computer
by forapurpose 8y ago
You've already been compensated with massive amounts of free, open source technology that you use every day, probably every time you interact with your computer. Now you have an opportunity to do a little work for it.
EDIT: harlanji's response, below, is the much better one IMHO. I let the parent frame it as a question of compensation. As harlanji points out, that was the wrong question.
- calvertdw 8y agoOpen source software is mostly written under well funded projects. Users shouldn't feel like they "owe".
- joekim 8y agoNobody said anything about "owing." Simply that we've been "compensated" via tremendous value hence as programmers there's no need to feel exploited for providing "free" labor.
- harlanji 8y agoLife gives what one gives it. Pretty appalling attitude up above. I was never more rich than when I did everything in the open.
- giancarlostoro 8y agoNot all projects are well funded, the openSSL heartbleed fiasco comes to mind.
- sametmax 8y agoMost of them didn't start as such, and only got funding after years, sometime decades, of free work. And even then, half of the work is still done for free. And that's only for the most famous one. E.G: the huge majority of free libs in JS or Python are purely pro bono. And even after the money arrived, some very popular software have very little money compared to the produced work: eg: the PSF. All in all, my entire computer contains millions of euros of software I didn't pay. It's sad enough you don't want to participate, but it's a choice we must respect. But don't be discouraging other people actually giving something, it's insulting.