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All business is about value created, not expenses incurred. And houses and furniture have marginal costs, where software does not. How does Linus Torvalds mak

All business is about value created, not expenses incurred. And houses and furniture have marginal costs, where software does not. How does Linus Torvalds make money when Linux is free? How do commercial Linux or MySQL or Apache companies make money when their IP is free? It turns out that writing code is the least valuable thing a developer does. Which is a good thing since "turn spec into code" is a job function that will be taken over my AI in... (Checks watch) I'm fully supportive of close source, but I think it's pretty clear that successful businesses can employ lots of people usi g either model, and also that the greatest threat to code mill developers is not open source.

lapcat 3y ago
> All business is about value created, not expenses incurred. Yes and no. Profit is revenue minus expenses. But you have to pay the expenses no matter what. Revenue and profit don't just magically appear. > And houses and furniture have marginal costs, where software does not. This seems to demonstrate what I said about taking software labor for granted. Producing software to operate at scale is actually quite difficult and requires a ton of labor. > How does Linus Torvalds make money when Linux is free? Good question. I don't even know. But the real question isn't how a few famous individuals like Torvalds and Stallman make a living. The question is how millions of non-famous individuals can make a living under this "funding model", whatever that happens to be. > it's pretty clear that successful businesses can employ lots of people usi[n]g either model Define "lots of people", and compare how many people are employed by open source companies vs. how many are employed by closed source companies. [EDIT:] I suspect the answer to the question of Linux funding is corporate donors. Which would be pretty ironic, given the anti-capitalist argument here, don't you think? It's just like how Mozilla is funded in large part by Google search revenue.
jen20 3y ago
> Which is a good thing since "turn spec into code" is a job function that will be taken over my AI in... (Checks watch) You realize that if your prediction comes to bear, that the job of writing code would become much more difficult: writing specs in an imprecise natural language instead of a precise computer language? Try reading anything written by a contract lawyer for why this is not an improved state of affairs.
chx 3y ago
> How does Linus Torvalds make money when Linux is free? Linux is so big there's a thriving Linux Foundation. This is rare. > How do commercial Linux or MySQL or Apache companies make money when their IP is free? support but again this requires an absolutely massive installed size because only a tiny percentage will pay.

lapcat 3y ago

> All business is about value created, not expenses incurred. Yes and no. Profit is revenue minus expenses. But you have to pay the expenses no matter what. Revenue and profit don't just magically appear. > And houses and furniture have marginal costs, where software does not. This seems to demonstrate what I said about taking software labor for granted. Producing software to operate at scale is actually quite difficult and requires a ton of labor. > How does Linus Torvalds make money when Linux is free? Good question. I don't even know. But the real question isn't how a few famous individuals like Torvalds and Stallman make a living. The question is how millions of non-famous individuals can make a living under this "funding model", whatever that happens to be. > it's pretty clear that successful businesses can employ lots of people usi[n]g either model Define "lots of people", and compare how many people are employed by open source companies vs. how many are employed by closed source companies. [EDIT:] I suspect the answer to the question of Linux funding is corporate donors. Which would be pretty ironic, given the anti-capitalist argument here, don't you think? It's just like how Mozilla is funded in large part by Google search revenue.

jen20 3y ago

> Which is a good thing since "turn spec into code" is a job function that will be taken over my AI in... (Checks watch) You realize that if your prediction comes to bear, that the job of writing code would become much more difficult: writing specs in an imprecise natural language instead of a precise computer language? Try reading anything written by a contract lawyer for why this is not an improved state of affairs.

chx 3y ago

> How does Linus Torvalds make money when Linux is free? Linux is so big there's a thriving Linux Foundation. This is rare. > How do commercial Linux or MySQL or Apache companies make money when their IP is free? support but again this requires an absolutely massive installed size because only a tiny percentage will pay.