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> There was also the unwritten contract that users of open source would support their developers. Doesn't match my recollection. Back when FOSS was a rising s
by ThrowawayR2 8y ago
> There was also the unwritten contract that users of open source would support their developers.
Doesn't match my recollection. Back when FOSS was a rising star, the rallying cry was "free as in beer and free as in speech". No suggestion of an unwritten contract was there and it was amply clear that the vast majority who were piling on to FOSS were infinitely more interested in the free as in beer part than the other.
FOSS created the widespread belief that software and digital information should be gratis; that's the only unwritten contract.
- pjmlp 8y agoFree beer only works if there is actually any beer available. Someone needs to produce wheat and brew it.
- ThrowawayR2 8y agoSure, but the vast majority using the code don't care and never will. The FOSS movement built its momentum by attracting freeloaders intentionally; turning around a couple decades later and saying to them "but you have to support the developers too; pay up" is doomed to failure. Moreover, it was clear that what we're seeing today was an inevitable outcome from the beginning, much as the true believers denied it at the time.