A Contrarian view on Open Source
Clemens Vasters has a few words about open source dreams. In an open letter to a 21 year old open source developer, he writes:
However, I start to wonder where your benefit is. You are - out of principle - not making any money out of this, because it is open-source and you and your buddies insist that it must be absolutely free. So you are putting all of that time and energy into this project for what? Fame? To found a career? Come on.
If someone installs your work from disc 3 of some Linux distro, they couldn't care less who you are. The whole fame thing you are telling me only works amongst geeks. The good looking, intelligent girl over there at the bar that you'd really like to talk to doesn't care much whether you are famous amongst a group of geeks and neither does she even remotely fathom why you'd be famous for that stuff in the first place. I mean - get real here.
Read the whole thing - and ask yourself whether or not there's a clear benefit to you in open source. I'm not as down on it as Clemens is - heck, BottomFeeder is open source. Then again, I'm not directly trying to make money from Bf either - it's a public demonstration for Smalltalk - i.e., marketing. Anyway, it's an interesting read.
Comments
Money?
[Ryan Lowe] February 28, 2004 15:41:21.058
I feel sorry for people that can't just enjoy programming and release their work to the world to say "hey, here it is!". Thinking about money too much just takes all the fun out of it.
Re: A Contrarian view on Open Source
[James Robertson] February 28, 2004 16:02:39.530
Comment on A Contrarian view on Open Source by James Robertson
Ryan,
That works fine until you have to meet payroll :) Money isn't everything - but it does pay for basic requirements...
The Flip Side
[Ryan Lowe] February 28, 2004 18:58:26.727
Hey, I'm not saying we can't all make a buck. But there's no reason for Clemens to piss all over someone else's views of open source software. Call it socialist or communist if you want (maybe bad blood coming from a German?) ... it doesn't matter. It's free, it's shared, it's open. Sounds like he's just afraid of being marginalized. Free software is going to commoditize the software market one segment at a time, he's just going to have to get used to that. More programmers will make money in services -- customizing software for specific tasks. So what if I can't make a ton of money writing open source software. Personally, one reason I do it as a learning experience, to increase my skillset. The feedback I get is more valuable than any closed-source job I've ever had -- and I'm more motivated and satisfied with my accomplishments on a personal level. I have two words for Clemens: SELF ACTUALIZATION. The gift culture is real. And women? If I wanted to impress women so badly I wouldn't have gone into high tech! Open source guys don't care about these things. They also don't care if "evil" companies use their free stuff. They know it's going to happen as long as people and companies abide by the license. Open source programmers aren't stupid and they aren't being used. Actually, I feel more sorry for him that he's been put in such a capitalist (and ignorant) mindset. There is room for free software in this world because people want choice and control. They shouldn't have to buy everything. There is also more to life than having a cushy 9-5 high tech job, gathering as many toys as you can or impressing people -- and that's what self actualization is all about. Personally, I'm just glad I was blessed with a good brain and that I don't have to shovel ditches all my life. If I get to hack on software people enjoy, it's a bonus and it makes me feel good. That's about as selfish as open source is: the ego boost. Just ask ESR about that... Sorry about the rant ... but I read negativity like that and I just feel it has to be balanced out.
Marginalized?
[] February 29, 2004 1:46:02.768
I am certainly not afraid to be marginalized. I am the original author of a pretty popular, open source, BSD-licensed weblog software for .NET called dasBlog. I know the gift culture. I give stuff away. And that's because I can afford it. I have a business. Aiden doesn't.
[Ryan Lowe] February 29, 2004 5:11:41.298
OK, so you just thought you'd "wake him up to the cold realities of the industry". Ya, thanks. As a "supporter" of open source software you should be a little more supportive of other people. Aiden's youthful optimism isn't going to last long, especially with guys like you on his back ... harping that his work is being "used" and that he's not getting any real benefit from it. He's getting a lot out of it ... it's just too bad you can't see it.
"Supporter"
[] February 29, 2004 7:05:28.026
I am not a supporter of open source idealism, at all. The fact that I have free stuff out there and share it doesn't mean that I am willing to participate in a political movement that is conciously trying to trick people into belief that giving their skills away for free by principle (I am not talking hobby here!) is a good idea.
Re: A Contrarian view on Open Source
[Terry] February 29, 2004 7:45:12.315
Comment on A Contrarian view on Open Source by Terry
As I see there are two good reasons for contributing to open source;
1. As James has stated, "Marketing". One form of this is that you provide consulting services on the open source software you provide.
2. Community development. Squeak and camp smalltalk are examples of this. This works well when each person contributes a small part of the whole. Unfortunately, some people insist on contributions and create licenses like the GPL license.
But let's look at another perspective. I developed the PDP debugger, it took me several months. I would not have developed it without the possibility of selling licenses. Now that Cincom has purchased it I am being compensated for my time. However, I have been asked to port it to Squeak, but because of the amount of work required to do so and knowing there will be no compensation, I have no interest in porting it to Squeak.
I also developed the recently introduced MPUI for VW. For this I received no compensation. I developed it because I thought it would simplify some aspects of the applications I develop and in the long run it would make VW more competitive and attract more users. From my perspective, the more VW users there are, the better the chances of me being employed doing VW development.