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RedHat people did not write Linux. They did contribute to it, provided support, but they did not write most of the code. The people who _did_ write the code w

RedHat people did not write Linux. They did contribute to it, provided support, but they did not write most of the code. The people who _did_ write the code were not directly compensated for it. Indirectly - perhaps. This is my point. It is not [currently, in its present form] sustaintable, due to the fact that people and corporations who use open source software do not [generally] pay for it.

xorcist 12y ago
Red Hat is not the only free software company, only the most widely known. Most core Linux developers are paid these days, check out the workplace statistics LWN publishes with almost every kernel release.
freehunter 12y ago
people and corporations who use open source software do not [generally] pay for it. Except, of course, for all of the companies that do, which is every company that uses Red Hat and many that use Ubuntu, Snort, and numerous other, smaller projects. Red Hat and Canonical may not have created Linux, but what we have today would not have been possible without their (highly paid) contributions. If Linus and the other original developers were gone tomorrow, Red Hat could easily keep Linux going for the foreseeable future. The point you're trying to make is that people don't pay for open source. And you're right. But companies do pay for support for open source, and they do pay for valuable cloud features that tie into open source software for a small fee.
- java-man 12y ago
  You are right. _Some_ companies do pay, that's why I included qualifier [generally]. We don't really know the percentage of the companies who do pay, but judging by the recent openSSL debacle, it's not great. I know this is probably not the right forum, but I was hoping to engage collective wisdom to come up with a third option, which would guarantee payment of some kind for an open source development.

xorcist 12y ago

Red Hat is not the only free software company, only the most widely known. Most core Linux developers are paid these days, check out the workplace statistics LWN publishes with almost every kernel release.

freehunter 12y ago

people and corporations who use open source software do not [generally] pay for it. Except, of course, for all of the companies that do, which is every company that uses Red Hat and many that use Ubuntu, Snort, and numerous other, smaller projects. Red Hat and Canonical may not have created Linux, but what we have today would not have been possible without their (highly paid) contributions. If Linus and the other original developers were gone tomorrow, Red Hat could easily keep Linux going for the foreseeable future. The point you're trying to make is that people don't pay for open source. And you're right. But companies do pay for support for open source, and they do pay for valuable cloud features that tie into open source software for a small fee.

java-man 12y ago
You are right. _Some_ companies do pay, that's why I included qualifier [generally]. We don't really know the percentage of the companies who do pay, but judging by the recent openSSL debacle, it's not great. I know this is probably not the right forum, but I was hoping to engage collective wisdom to come up with a third option, which would guarantee payment of some kind for an open source development.