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I don't understand your argument. Some of the most popular software in the world is free. Linux, Apache, OpenSSL, Firefox and more are used by millions and got

I don't understand your argument. Some of the most popular software in the world is free. Linux, Apache, OpenSSL, Firefox and more are used by millions and got built without charging people to use them. On a personal computer, there is free software to accomplish any desktop computing task. How can you say that it wont get built when it already has been?

api 12y ago
Those are all special cases, and are all subsidized heavily. Ordinary OSS authors are volunteers. You can only go so far that way, but people have to build a viable career around things or they will eventually be given up. Meanwhile, the closed systems people do pay for have a monstrous advantage and will continue to be far ahead. Nowhere are they further ahead than design and user experience, which in my experience are harder and more work to get right than core code. When you make something work you are only maybe 25% of the way to making it usable. That last 75% is the no-fun stuff people have to be paid to do, and it's the stuff that separates products people use from geek projects only a tiny number of enthusiasts play with.
Canada 12y ago
Those examples you mention exist mainly because interests with money decided it was cheaper to support communal infrastructure upon which they could build proprietary offerings. Even if they started for the joy of hacking, a lot of people were paid good money to make those projects what they are today. That will not automatically happen for a lot of classes of software. You point out that any desktop computing task can be done with free software. So what? That doesn't even matter anymore. It's 2014 and we can't accomplish a significant amount of mobile computing tasks with free software, and those are more intimately connected to us than desktops ever were.
- RadioactiveMan 12y ago
  Those projects do have a lot of money behind them. The point there is that there is room to make money with open source projects. There are business models besides selling software directly. You make an excellent point about mobile computing. However, interest in free mobile software is growing and we'll see more options available to mirror the demand.
  - Canada 12y ago
    Definitely. We've certainly seen great examples of open source projects turning into successful commercial ventures, while remaining committed to free software. What I'm trying to say here is that I hope to see even more business models that work well so we can get free alternatives in more areas of computing sooner rather than later.

api 12y ago

Those are all special cases, and are all subsidized heavily. Ordinary OSS authors are volunteers. You can only go so far that way, but people have to build a viable career around things or they will eventually be given up. Meanwhile, the closed systems people do pay for have a monstrous advantage and will continue to be far ahead. Nowhere are they further ahead than design and user experience, which in my experience are harder and more work to get right than core code. When you make something work you are only maybe 25% of the way to making it usable. That last 75% is the no-fun stuff people have to be paid to do, and it's the stuff that separates products people use from geek projects only a tiny number of enthusiasts play with.

Canada 12y ago

Those examples you mention exist mainly because interests with money decided it was cheaper to support communal infrastructure upon which they could build proprietary offerings. Even if they started for the joy of hacking, a lot of people were paid good money to make those projects what they are today. That will not automatically happen for a lot of classes of software. You point out that any desktop computing task can be done with free software. So what? That doesn't even matter anymore. It's 2014 and we can't accomplish a significant amount of mobile computing tasks with free software, and those are more intimately connected to us than desktops ever were.

RadioactiveMan 12y ago
Those projects do have a lot of money behind them. The point there is that there is room to make money with open source projects. There are business models besides selling software directly. You make an excellent point about mobile computing. However, interest in free mobile software is growing and we'll see more options available to mirror the demand.
- Canada 12y ago
  Definitely. We've certainly seen great examples of open source projects turning into successful commercial ventures, while remaining committed to free software. What I'm trying to say here is that I hope to see even more business models that work well so we can get free alternatives in more areas of computing sooner rather than later.