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SourceForge Drifting
Zocalo sent us a story running at FSF Europe talking about SourceForge's Drifting. Talks about the fact that they are releasing a closed-source version of the code commercially and various copyright related things. Obviously VA owns both SF and Slashdot so I'm skewed, but my personal opinion is that VA is doing what they need to do to make a buck while still providing the SourceForge.net website to the Open Source community. And I think their decision to sell a closed-source proprietary version of the code would be hypocritical, except that they aren't a 100% open-source company any more. And *that* is the part that makes me the most sad.
Their total revenue for the quarter was $15,981,000, while their Net Loss was $290,118,000. They lost 20 times what they made. That is simply pathetic. If they're going to come out of this, they've got to do a MAJOR turnaround, and as much as I'd like VA to succeed, I don't think selling SourceForge is going to make them 275 million a quarter. I feel bad for those who bought LNUX in the $300 range.
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
Righto.
It makes me sick to hear all those 'open source' fanatics cringe & boo at a company trying to make some cash. Lets face it no one starts companies to make humankind better. It is all about the money.
Open Source originated from people working on 'side' projects aside from their 'job'. You know a job that sends you a paycheck that helps pay your bills and morgage. So most of the open source people were/are working on some proprietary company full time. Just because some lucky ones are paid to work in open source (Larry Wall comes to mind & GNU core people) doesn't mean everyone should make everything open and free.
Am I against open source? hell no. I love it. I use it everyday. I even contributed something back (nothing significant like Linux kernel, but tiny stuff). But at the same time, I understand economics 101. People have to earn a living (I am not talking about filthy rich here, just enough to make a decent living).
So get over this 'ooooh evil proprietary' mentality and thank them for their contributions. I for one am glad SourceForge exists. I have 2 projects hosted there.
Sorry, just had to get it out of the system.
LinuxLover
A few tweaks = Become a standard Closed Source software company.
I commend them! It's about time people started kicking the OSS drug.
The open source utopia reminds me of "Das Kapital" by Karl Marx. It resultet in Communism, which is a great way of life, if it was at all possible. It's about everyone being happy and sharing (open source). But we know how North Korea is doing, do you remember Sovjet and Cuba? It's just as bad as depotism or the French monrachies before the revolution.
What you have to ask yourself if you would accept open source/communism ideas in your daily life. Do you want to slave 12 hours a day and have the same living standard as someone who is just playing around all day (I rather play all day myself, but nobody is paying me for that)? Think about it some, what is the purpose of free software really?
I think it's a good thing that vA can make some money, they need it, we all need more companies that makes money and gives us jobs and thus feeds us (most of us are involved, or will get involved, in the software business). As long as they give proper support and doesn't stop anyone else from doing a similar system.
Does this mean I hate all free software? Hell no, not at all. I love to see people doing all this work, having fun (the only reason to do something for free), sharing. It's great stuff, and to all who does that, my deepest thanks. If others can make buisiness out of your work it helps us all in these sad times. I just wish that those companies could be nice and send the authors a little gift or two.
I also don't have anything against closed source, as long as they give good support. A lot of very specialist software would never be made unless it was paid for. In some cases it would be no sense in keeping the source closed, in others it would be essential to survive as a business, both are needed.
So what is the bottom line? Jump down from your high horses and write lotsa software instead, do what it takes to make what you want, and make money in any way you can (but be nice) and have fun. Let the best software prevail, try new business models, never stop evolving. If one close sourced project can fund another open source project, isn't that a good thing?