Re:A clear-eyed view of open software funding, impediments, ...
by carapace on Thursday August 29, 2019 @01:36PM
(#20831764)
Let me say up front that I'm a Free software fanatic. RMS was correct. I don't really understand Open source philosophy. I'm not trying to start a flame war, just disclosing my bias.
The point of Free Software is sharing without letting the other guy hoard improvements or lock you out of sharing.
Recall that the whole thing got started when RMS wanted to fix the software in his printer and Xerox said "no". That's the genesis of the GPL.
Getting paid is orthogonal to writing Free software. RMS himself makes his money by writing new software on contract not by somehow selling his existing code.
> Ramey has now worked on Bash and Readline for well over a decade. He has never once been compensated for his work—he is and has always been a volunteer.
You have perhaps used that code for years and never thought to pay Mr. Ramey, eh?
I'm using a Prolog compiler that's written and maintained by one guy, an Associate Professor at Centre de recherche en informatique at the Sorbonne: http://www.gprolog.org/
If you are paying for software and do not have a truly novel application in 2019 then you are wasting your money.
If you want to get paid for writing software that isn't solving a truly novel problem then I don't know what to tell you, I think you're kind of deluded. (If you want to get paid for software you already wrote then IMO you're a miser.)
"He who works for the fruits of his labors is a miser"
The point of Free Software is sharing without letting the other guy hoard improvements or lock you out of sharing.
Recall that the whole thing got started when RMS wanted to fix the software in his printer and Xerox said "no". That's the genesis of the GPL.
Getting paid is orthogonal to writing Free software. RMS himself makes his money by writing new software on contract not by somehow selling his existing code.
This works.
Bash and readline are maintained by one guy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20772053
> Ramey has now worked on Bash and Readline for well over a decade. He has never once been compensated for his work—he is and has always been a volunteer.
You have perhaps used that code for years and never thought to pay Mr. Ramey, eh?
I'm using a Prolog compiler that's written and maintained by one guy, an Associate Professor at Centre de recherche en informatique at the Sorbonne: http://www.gprolog.org/
If you are paying for software and do not have a truly novel application in 2019 then you are wasting your money.
If you want to get paid for writing software that isn't solving a truly novel problem then I don't know what to tell you, I think you're kind of deluded. (If you want to get paid for software you already wrote then IMO you're a miser.)
"He who works for the fruits of his labors is a miser"
~ Krishna