How about this reddit comment? https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/6p872z/make_emacs_pay_what_you_want/dko3pae/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/6p87

How about this reddit comment? https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/6p872z/make_emacs_pay_what_you_want/dko3pae/ https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/6p872z/make_emacs_pa... Here it is for those who don't like reddit ======================== I think this approach by the programming profession towards tools that are critical to their occupation is somewhat ass-backwards. Their idea of professionals depending on critical tools which are created by other professionals in their spare time is wrong. It is time software engineers created guilds that fund the development of tools they need and use. It may be that software development is a new profession which is failing to get properly organized on account of the involvement of big corporations. But that is a throwback to an era when computers were expensive resources only big companies (with lashings of DARPA and NSF funding) could afford and thus were able to influence the tools and the outlook. Those days are long gone in an era where a powerful computer can be had for less than $200, and there is no need for professionals to allow corporate agendas to undermine the proper development of software tools, as it has been since the internet came around, and it is time software developers learned to see themselves as professionals and stop seeing their jobs as gigs as though they are part time semi-employed musicians or something. I mean it is 2017 and GCC has been available since the 1990s, but where is the graphical C++ debugger rivaling Visual Studio that we would have by now if developers belonged to a well organized profession which saw the need to fund the development of their software tools through membership dues just like any of the professional bodies out there? By that I mean the software developers themselves, wholly independent of any corporations out there, ie no Linux Foundation type f&ckery where BigCo come in and shape the direction to their agenda. The software could be Free GNU License software but the hard part would be done by paid professionals funded by guild membership fees.