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I find it hard to believe that kick-ass Linux kernel developers (among many others) give away a whole operating system, worth billions in dev. costs, yet on the

by tx 18y ago

I find it hard to believe that kick-ass Linux kernel developers (among many others) give away a whole operating system, worth billions in dev. costs, yet on the same planet someone is thinking about charging $10 for a time waster. There is nothing wrong with trying to make a buck. But the disparity of programmers' mindsets is amazing.

cmars232 18y ago
I'd bet that the potential market of people willing to waste their time betting on celebrities, sports, and the latest whatever in current events is greater than the segment of people willing to waste their time trying to find X device driver to get Y hardware working properly on a laptop that came with Vista preinstalled. I wish the best developers got paid the most, but the reality is, it seems to go to the ones who are best at getting people to part with their hard-earned cash.
ericb 18y ago
The majority of the world chooses not to work for free. My landlord certainly won't let me live rent-free. I can't go to a movie for free. So I'm not sure who are the weird ones (or disparate) in this equation. That said, I love, use and appreciate open source. It's just not the only answer, and many people working on open source are compensated by a sponsor (IBM, Sun, etc.). Is it fair to pick on someone for expecting to be paid for their work? World of Warcraft isn't much more than a time waster.
- voidfiles 18y ago
  I think you need to expand the definition of paid. These people aren't slogging away in a mine. They are writing code. Many of them enjoy it so much they like to do it for reasons other then money. Also, don't forget that if you contribute to an open source project you are recognized for doing so. You are apart of a community. That is worth something. Thinking of open source solely as work done for "free" isn't the right way to think about open source.
- tx 18y ago
  I am not picking on anybody, I don't code much for free either (should be apparent by looking at my profile). I am just wondering out loud how some guys afford to do that, while others (myself included) try to follow PG's advice of building something small and easy on top of mountains of free products created by others. In fact, if I were Zuckenberg, I'd give a fat chunk of Facebook stock to various free software projects such as PHP, etc. Moreover, I believe it should become a tradition, those guys are the reason why "startups are so cheap!" (quote) these days.
  - aditya 18y ago
    They did, with VA Software when all the free software hackers became temporarily rich. And we all know how that story ended :)

by tx 18y ago

cmars232 18y ago

I'd bet that the potential market of people willing to waste their time betting on celebrities, sports, and the latest whatever in current events is greater than the segment of people willing to waste their time trying to find X device driver to get Y hardware working properly on a laptop that came with Vista preinstalled. I wish the best developers got paid the most, but the reality is, it seems to go to the ones who are best at getting people to part with their hard-earned cash.

ericb 18y ago

The majority of the world chooses not to work for free. My landlord certainly won't let me live rent-free. I can't go to a movie for free. So I'm not sure who are the weird ones (or disparate) in this equation. That said, I love, use and appreciate open source. It's just not the only answer, and many people working on open source are compensated by a sponsor (IBM, Sun, etc.). Is it fair to pick on someone for expecting to be paid for their work? World of Warcraft isn't much more than a time waster.

voidfiles 18y ago
I think you need to expand the definition of paid. These people aren't slogging away in a mine. They are writing code. Many of them enjoy it so much they like to do it for reasons other then money. Also, don't forget that if you contribute to an open source project you are recognized for doing so. You are apart of a community. That is worth something. Thinking of open source solely as work done for "free" isn't the right way to think about open source.
tx 18y ago
I am not picking on anybody, I don't code much for free either (should be apparent by looking at my profile). I am just wondering out loud how some guys afford to do that, while others (myself included) try to follow PG's advice of building something small and easy on top of mountains of free products created by others. In fact, if I were Zuckenberg, I'd give a fat chunk of Facebook stock to various free software projects such as PHP, etc. Moreover, I believe it should become a tradition, those guys are the reason why "startups are so cheap!" (quote) these days.
- aditya 18y ago
  They did, with VA Software when all the free software hackers became temporarily rich. And we all know how that story ended :)