> A plumber who works for free is a rare thing to see, however in software it seems lots of people _expect_ it to be created like that. Not uncommon at all to s

> A plumber who works for free is a rare thing to see, however in software it seems lots of people _expect_ it to be created like that. Not uncommon at all to see comments in HN saying that "oh well if it's not OSS I won't try this software you're showing off". Try saying to a carpenter that if they don't give away their new chairs for free, you wouldn't even start to think of getting one! :) A big difference is plumbers use interchangeable parts and you are mostly paying for their time and skill. With closed source software, you are getting a blackbox that you can't extend beyond what the creators allow and the creators will only extend so long as they are in business. After that it might still be usefull but a liability or can be useless.