[geeks] And The Linux Weenies Wonder Why They Aren't Mainstream...`

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 @ 15:18 -0500, der Mouse said:

> > Paying someone to fix their software is not practical for an end
> > user.
> 
> Cygnus built a successful business around disagreeing with that.

Um, no... apples and oranges.

Cygnus operated like a typical software house and sold to end users and
supported them.

I'm talking about an end user seeking someone to fix software, among what
might be hundreds of people on the project, and trying to get their fixes
implemented.

That's just not practical. Most end users would have no idea how to even get
started.

They also probably would not have enough money.

> > The problem with the "this is free, so we don't have to fix it
> > attitude" is that it is completely false.
> 
> Actually, it's entirely true (well, except for the causal link implied
> by the "so").  But you don't have to use it, either.


> > Also, the whole idea that this software is free is a complete lie.
> > Someone, somewhere, had to pay for it.  If they aren't starving, then
> > their "free" work is really subsidized by whoever pays them.
> 
> Not always.  Sometimes it's subsidized by the author's choice of
> leisure-time activity.  (I don't consider one's leisure-time activities
> to be subsidized by one's employer.)

I'm not talking about *ALL* free software.

I've released small programs and no, I didn't support them very much.

But I also did not get paid by Sun or IBM, I didn't spend a whole lot of
_someone's_ money promoting it as an alternative to commercial software,
etc.

*THAT* is what a lot of FOSS projects are doing, and I believe when you do
that then you have a certain responsibility to properly maintain it.

I thought it was obvious that I wasn't talking about the various free programs
that someone just wrote and shared.



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["If you tell the truth, you don't have to
remember anything" -- Mark Twain]