Most worthwhile programming projects entail modifying existing software Getting a job at a corporation, sure enough this is true: Most of the work is in modify

Most worthwhile programming projects entail modifying existing software Getting a job at a corporation, sure enough this is true: Most of the work is in modifying the existing code base. But the number of people forking an open source project for their own purpose is small (google does it) and the number doing so for purposes of resale is zero. you will have noticed that the retired or older professional programmers of 10 and 15 years ago had a more fatalistic and passive attitude This is an odd statement and one that would be hard to support with numbers. I know for a fact that where opportunities existed, they were exploited. A lot of COBOL programmers may have not understood the possibility of creating a software product, but there was no limit to the opportunities for people writing Atari 2600/Apple II/C64 assembler, etc. You were observing the wrong data set perhaps. It strikes me as sad that many small companies are making web knock-offs of products that were genuinely innovative in the bad old days (word processors, publishing software, spreadsheets, media players, etc.) I've said this before: Keep linux on the server, as it does keep the money "in the family"--between software professionals, more or less. But if Windows goes out of style, it's destroying a huge money flow from other businesses to software. This is mercenary, but that's how life is.