Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again)

MSCHAEF.COM wrote
(in article <xsednWAQK8IZKKzeRVn-ow@xxxxxx>):

> In article <dgsa5b$det$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Scott Moore <samiamsansspam@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Guys, this thread is never going to end.
>>
>> To the software communists:
>
> Sorry, this is late and might well be out of context. But...
>
> Open source has some real benefits, even in a capitalist economy:

I don't recall a single person arguing otherwise, so I don't
understand why you are arguing at length against a position that
hasn't been presented, or presented so poorly that it doesn't
bear remembering.

> * OSS allows a market to form around suppport for software
> rather than the software itself

so? Great chocolate cookies allow people to sell cookies, and
doctors to perform more bypass operations. Markets form and
dissolve all the time. If OSS allows some people to make money,
that's great. If taking proprietary source against the will of
the author allows someone to make money, with or without
pretending that it's open source in the process, that's not
great.

> * OSS ensures that software can be developed/maintained as
> long as the market will pay the costs.

If you have the money, you can ensure that closed source
software will be maintained too. You just may not like the
number. Nevermind that there is a lot of open source code
floating around that isn't worth maintaining. (I'm not saying
that there isn't a lot of 'good' OSS code out there too).

> * OSS is particularly beneficial in education, where the
> whole point (almost) is open dissimination of information.

Seems berkeley figured out a way to handle that a /long/ time
ago. Without restricting people downstream in any meaningful
way, btw.

> * OSS provides creative outlets for lots of otherwise under
> employed developers.

So does a bicycle, or even podcasting. :-)

> * Because product sales don't drive development, OSS provides
> a good platform for more 'experimental' types of software.

And that's what the world post-Microsoft really needs, even more
experimental software. LOL. I'd like to find some that is NOT
experimental for a change. Oh wait, I already did. It comes on
this neat little DVD with "OS X" written on it.

> There's nothing (yet) legally that keeps OSS and Closed Source from
> both being viable models.

True. One is a lot more viable than the other if you want to
actually make a living, but both have their uses.

> There are only a few people that are for OSS-only, but a hybrid software
> marketplace is likely to achieve much broader acceptance.

One might argue that it already has.

>> Sure, people steal software all the time.
>
> Theft is bad.

I used to think that was generally accepted outside of gangs,
politicians, prisons and the UN. After this thread, I see that
it has also been lost on a portion of otherwise sentient
programmers.

>> But they don't do
>> it because they feel its their moral right. They do it because they *CAN*.
>
> That's exactly the kind of reasoning that could drive open source 'out of
> business'. Closed source only is as bad as open source only.

No, I think society is going to collapse from the weight of
catering to the "I want what you have because it's not fair"
people. Actually giving debit cards to people that were
recently looting and killing each other is a symptom that our
government isn't even going to try and control the population
anymore, it costs them votes.

At some point, there will be a dogfight between the "I earn it
myself" and the "I steal it myself" crowd, and we'll just have
to wait and see how easy it is for someone to steal a loaded gun
from somebody that bought it and knows how to use it. All the
rest is just warmup for the big party to be named later.
:-)


--
Randy Howard (2reply remove FOOBAR)

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: ProtoCiv: porting Freeciv to Python CANNED
    ... OSS is being hailed as ... If you regard open source software ... Because of the bugs and the Authors unwilligness to ... There are lots of reasons why developers can't or won't fix the bugs. ...
    (comp.lang.python)
  • Re: Open_Source
    ... developers will resort to sneaky tactics: ... To the OPs original question, I stand by my beliefs in open source, ... FreeBSD and other OSS has been the fundamental foundation of our business ... the same sort of tactic regarding commercial software ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: what to do after "Touretzkeys book"?
    ... _i_ pay people to work in open source. ... I suppose only very few get to work and maintain open source as their job, just because most companies don't make money on OSS. ... next two years hacking on open source, it will look pretty good to the ... So open source is essential in this business model. ...
    (comp.lang.lisp)
  • Fourth Asia Open Source Software (OSS) Symposium, Taipei
    ... Minutes of the 4th Asia Open Source Software (OSS) Symposium, ...
    (comp.os.linux.announce)
  • OSS 2005 Call For Paper
    ... The First International Conference on Open Source Systems Genova, ... Submissions of papers or of extended abstracts are solicited for the ... Open Source Software (OSS) development has emerged in the last decades ...
    (comp.lang.java.programmer)