Re: the free software paradigm [was Re: Amazon used lisp & C exclusively?

Raffael Cavallaro
<raffaelcavallaro@pas-d'espam-s'il-vous-plait-mac.com> writes:

Free software is not and never has been about the programmers; it's
always been about the users.

You're arguing my point - free software can be very bad for
programmers. It is only an unqualified good for cheapos who want free
stuff.

I would not claim that free software is an unqualified good, but I do
think that you're viewing it from a very narrow perspective.
Instinctively, it does seem plausible that free software will result
in the lowering of programmers' wages. But this is based on a false
assumption and ignores another important fact.

The false assumption is that most programmers will choose to work on
the same problems that have already been solved by free software.
Certainly there will be some programmers who do this and unless they
come up with a sufficiently better value proposition, they will lose.
OTOH, smart programmers will work on problems which haven't been
solved and where they can leverage the huge amount of free software
that is extant to bring their solution to market at lower expenditure
of time and capital.

The important fact that is being ignored is that well over 90% of the
software industry consists of turnkey and custom software solutions,
an area where free software can never make inroads. Where do you
think IBM GS, Accenture, EDS, CA, Infosys etc. make their big money?

rsi
--
<rsi@xxxxxxxxx> a.k.a. Rajappa Iyer.
Absinthe makes the tart grow fonder.
.

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