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'e.g., when a guy asked how to make money by building Open Source software he replied something like "get another job"' He's right in a way, don't you think? L

by eksith 13y ago

'e.g., when a guy asked how to make money by building Open Source software he replied something like "get another job"' He's right in a way, don't you think? Let's look at it in another way: Open source is ostensibly about altruism isn't it? You get side benefits like free code review (this is arguable to a degree since edge cases/difficult issues don't get a lot of love), but in the end, it's about giving your work away for the benefit of people you'll likely never meet. So then how do you turn altruism into a business? Some people have (charities are big business these days), but that isn't in the true spirit of altruism. So those who do build open source software without ulterior motives are destined to break even at best.

icebraining 13y ago
Open source is ostensibly about altruism isn't it? No. Free Software (Open Source misses the point[1]) is about giving users their four freedoms. There's nothing in the philosophy that implies that you shouldn't charge for it. Personally, my salary - and of the other developers at the company I work for - is paid for writing Free Software, some of which is publicly available, some of which isn't. "Since free software is not a matter of price, a low price doesn't make the software free, or even closer to free. So if you are redistributing copies of free software, you might as well charge a substantial fee and make some money. Redistributing free software is a good and legitimate activity; if you do it, you might as well make a profit from it." http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.e...
- eksith 13y ago
  Fair point. Well put. I suppose it's easy to widen the scope of what "Open Source" actually entails and have it fall outside the realm of Free Software.

by eksith 13y ago

icebraining 13y ago

Open source is ostensibly about altruism isn't it? No. Free Software (Open Source misses the point[1]) is about giving users their four freedoms. There's nothing in the philosophy that implies that you shouldn't charge for it. Personally, my salary - and of the other developers at the company I work for - is paid for writing Free Software, some of which is publicly available, some of which isn't. "Since free software is not a matter of price, a low price doesn't make the software free, or even closer to free. So if you are redistributing copies of free software, you might as well charge a substantial fee and make some money. Redistributing free software is a good and legitimate activity; if you do it, you might as well make a profit from it." http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html [1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.e...

eksith 13y ago
Fair point. Well put. I suppose it's easy to widen the scope of what "Open Source" actually entails and have it fall outside the realm of Free Software.