From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,afb4d45672b1e262 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news.glorb.com!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!statler.nntpserver.com!news-out.octanews.net!canary.octanews.net!border2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.megapath.net!news.megapath.net.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:56:54 -0500 From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <7NOdne-iYtWmIafZnZ2dnUVZ_tWdnZ2d@megapath.net> <292bf$443bb4e4$45491254$20549@KNOLOGY.NET> Subject: Re: Making money on open source, if not by selling _support_, then how? Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:57:00 -0500 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Message-ID: <0tSdnezhf44L9KDZRVn-vA@megapath.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 64.32.209.38 X-Trace: sv3-fj5DA9JLXQDsOD4jWzD/mBK6HmEpJxkJSsrHcgR/rwa3kQi/PoF1FgcrOURPMKPUOkgf1wtezRILn1v!1psNiIqsWCYpxvu4AvbJ+Q28CSE1XBRNcFYVjqqEhl9hfLK5iP7fKMh68pRNHfTez/o481YpFvJZ X-Complaints-To: abuse@megapath.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@megapath.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.32 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3805 Date: 2006-04-12T15:57:00-05:00 List-Id: "Justin Gombos" wrote in message news:nT7%f.4699$7Z6.366@trnddc06... ... > > Which means no creations at all. > > You can't conclude that. If that were a true statement, we would not > have the rich library of GNU software that exists today. Why? > Because there's nothing to stop a GNU developer from having a day job. > I suspect most self supporting GNU developers have day jobs. But that's my point. Taken to it's limit, there could be no well-paying "day jobs" for those GNU developers. After all, most of them are employed at companies that get some benefit from the GNU software. In the limit, where software was worth $0, there would be no "day jobs" in fields that are even remotely related. If the day job is unrelated (or even only weakly related), then the developers are either not developing great software, or are short-changing someone (their employers, their families, themselves, etc.) Great software requires at least some of the developers putting a large amount of mental energy into the design and the vision (and keeping to that design and vision). That's incompatible with a "day job" that requires significant mental energy, which is the vast majority of them. (I suppose you could work at a Wal-Mart-like job, if you don't mind living below the poverty line. But I happen to think software is too important to the world for developers to be forced to live at poverty levels...). You can cheat your employer, of course, but that's not a recipe for a sustanable model. Nor is "work, program, sleep" a model for healthy living. In any case, most GNU software is a long ways from being great. Being better (arguably) than other software out there is not the same as being great. Randy.