And the FUDmachine continues to spew... (n/t)

Story: Who Pays For Open Source Software?Total Replies: 5
Author Content
tuxchick

Feb 15, 2009
7:44 PM EDT
And the FUDmachine continues to spew... (n/t)
bigg

Feb 15, 2009
8:42 PM EDT
What a waste of bandwidth and time to read this. His point is that anyone who thinks free software is the way to go should keep in mind that it is funded by companies that have sold proprietary software. Which leads me to ask what is his point.
Alterax

Feb 16, 2009
2:19 AM EDT
His point was to get his name in big letters on the computer screen. There's nothing to back up his idea that closed-source, license-based software sales is the only viable model. He's ignoring the fact that using open code drastically reduces the in-house costs of research and development for companies that DO sell products built with open-source code.

I'd rather pay a higher wage to one or two programmers to work full-time with a host of other donated programmers to come out with something that can be used by all, than I would pay for a whole slew of programmers to reinvent the wheel from scratch.

It also means if I build something using open code that DOES turn out to be crap, I've only lost the time I've paid to the one or two programmers that I had helping with the open-source project, instead of the 20-30 that I would have had working otherwise.

Now MY name's in big letters. :-P
tuxchick

Feb 16, 2009
2:44 AM EDT
No no, alterax!

ALTERAX

There, now it's in big letters!
tracyanne

Feb 16, 2009
2:50 AM EDT
Not yet....

Alterax

Now it is.

I think the point is that companies like Red Hat, Mandriva, Canonical etc are proprietary to the extent that they bol proprietorship over certain things related to the Free Software that they sell support licences for.

bigg

Feb 16, 2009
9:11 AM EDT
This is such a fundamental point, and one that's been understood for many years. You can have a profitable business model that includes writing and giving away software under a free software license. This is 2009, we need to move the conversation forward.

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