I wasn't claiming it was or wasn't (those are ESR's words). My point was that if it were true, would the poster's opinion be different. I'd be curious as to how

I wasn't claiming it was or wasn't (those are ESR's words). My point was that if it were true, would the poster's opinion be different. I'd be curious as to how many people would actually pay past open source contributors due to some personal sense of obligation or perhaps respect. Some in this thread are asking 'what have you done for me lately?', but would that feeling change if someone had done substantial (and assume again unpaid) work that comprises the foundations of today's preferred toolset. Just an interesting concept to consider.