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Young Programmer, Stop Advocating Free Software!
Lansdowne writes "Clemens Vasters, in an open letter to a young developer he met at a software conference, asks him to consider the consequences of writing software for free. "Software is the immediate result and the manifestation of what your learned and what you know. How much is that worth? Nothing? Think again."" While I don't particularly agree with all of the points made here, this is the type of question that needs to be answered to continue to get people involved in Free/Open/Libre/GNU/whatever source/software/code.
cool, this will be useful in case the other comment gets /.ed :)
The IT section color scheme sucks.
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.
<Asok>It only hurts because it's true.</Asok>
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
have you seen my bills?
That would answer that right quick... I have more bills then I do dollar bills at the second.
So everything is worth money.
Time is money... you owe me 0.35$ for writing this. Deposit here
This seems like some sort of outtake from a tech version of "The Screwtape Letters".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
So once you get your degree from school, what's the plan?
To get outsourced.
How do you say "self-rightous git" in German?
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Linus has a very nice car, and house 8)
Ahh, the smell of a karma whore in the morning makes me smile........
Dear Aiden,
Oh mein Gott, you're going to put my closed-source company out of business! PLEASE STOP!
Clemens
No one in OSS has ever made a living making free software. Those guys at Apache, Samba, and the ISC must be "giving handjobs for cash"* to sustain their miserable little lives. And I am sure that Linus is just squeking by on foodstamps and cat food. * obligatory South Park quote, so don't do drugs mmm-kay
the main point of the letter is "why would you try and make a living as a mechanic when people are so clueless they will go on paying you to reinvent the wheel over and over and over ?"
though it mostly reminds me of old whores complaining about the sluts who give it for free.
Dev elpizw tipota, dev phoboumai tipota eimai lephteros http://euclidian.org
Why, you could practically hear the cobwebs gathering around his wizened face as he thought aaaallll the way back through the hoary ages to - gasp - 1990, when he was a carefree 21 year old like the addressee. someone get this incredibly wise 35-year-old a wheelchair before he keels over.
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.
well, that was particularly insulting. nothing quite like the threat of "no pussy!" to drive intelligent young programmers away from open source / free software.
unprincipled windbag.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
>I am 17 years old, and I have been working on open source software for a while now. ...
>the program is going to be so improved vastly by people who have vastly more knowledge than me. There is always someone in the world who can do something that you did, better
I doubt that you have the ego required to become a programmer. When you start saying "I wrote better code when I was 17!" then will you TRUELY become a programmer like the rest of us.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Proprietary software prefer a "call by value" scheme, while F/OSS use the "call by name".
I am 17 years old, and I have been working on open source software for a while now. I would never consider closed source software as a preferred alternative to open source
Yes, but once you move out of your parent's house and lose your job at McDonalds, and companies are using your free software instead of hiring you to write it for them, your tune will change.
I can't believe Linus and RMS would do this to us. Have they been secretly taking kickbacks from IBM? It's absolutely shameful how they convinced so many innocent young coders to start writing software for The Man, without expecting 1500 marks per license in remuneration.
I wonder how many more enterprising businesspeople could have saved tens of hours every week if Mr. Vasters had decided to charge somewhat less than four months salary for his amazing intellectual property?
I'm also saddened that "the good looking, intelligent girl over there at the bar" doesn't care that young Aiden is a bright young lad who wants to contribute something positive to our culture. Nor does she seem interested in the fact that he has the skills necessary to do so. But according to Mr. Vasters, she is deeply concerned about whether Aiden owns his own car. Aiden, forget this girl. Go after her friend with the hyperactive social conscience. She's probably a better fit.
I would rant onward, but I'm out of time. Try the veal.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
> if that girl suddenly starts liking me because
> of my "big-load-o-cash"(tm), I probably wont like
> her anymore.
I think that if you are reading slashdot, you probably can not afford to be so picky.
Sorry, that just made me laugh. I agree with you, though.
Wikileaks, no DNS
two brand new Lexus
Don't you mean Lexi?
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.
Says the poster with the Real Doll sig.
Q:How many libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer division? A:None. Obviously market forces will take care of it.
Maybe you have the best job on Earth, where every programming assignment given to you is fresh and invigorating. Or maybe you shoot cocaine. Or maybe, you haven't worked as a programmer a day in your life. Yeah, that's what I'm guessing.
Dear Newton,
I think you remember the conversation we had recently at this university in Cambridge. You came up to me and told me how the math I was talking about was mostly useless, because it is a mystical secret where people need to be inducted into a secret soceity to use it and those who divulge it are killed. Unfortunately I don't have your letter, but I am sure this will reach you.
First, I would like to thank you for the interesting conversation that developed and to make sure that none of what was said just fades away, I'll tell you here once again what I am thinking about what you do, what you think and - most importantly about your future.
When I was young - like you now - I was also at university and was pursing a natural philosophy degree. Back then, I was very enthusiastic about mathematics as a humanitarian discipline. And thought that I was the best mathematician in the field has ever seen and everyone else was mostly worthless. And I did indeed derive some theorems that mattered and made a difference. The theory I spent some 3 years writing in algebra from when I was 18 was to solve a problem for my father's business. Because the business he's in requires a lot of interest calulations, he and my mother spent about 2-3 daily hours on average doing all of this stuff by hand. Using my theorem, that time went from 3 hours to about 15 minutes a day. That was math that absolutely improved the quality of life for the entire family! And his friends and colleagues loved it, too. I didn't sell many licenses at that time (I think I had 3 customers), but each one was worth 1500 Brittish Pounds and that was a huge heap of money for me. Where did the money go? I can't really remember where it all went, but I guess "lot of partying" or "Girls, Drugs and Minuettes" would be a reasonably good explanation. Hey, I was 21 and that's what one is supposed to do at that age, right?
That was in 1640 - let's fast forward to 1669 and you. All math that you and your father could possibly be interested in has already been written. That's probably not true, but it's hard to think of something, right? Ok, the math may not be easy to understand with your notation and may cost money, but what you can immediately think of is likely there. So where do you put all your energy? Into this absolutely amazing free math project you co-coordinate. I mean, really, the stuff that you and your buddies are doing with derivatives is truly impressive. There are a couple of things I'd probably do differently in terms of notation, but it works well and that's mostly what matters.
However, I start to wonder where your benefit is. You are - out of principle - not making any money out of this, because it is free 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.
In the end, Newton, it's your choice. Do you want to have a horse, a house and a family when you are 30? Do you love being a Natural Philosopher at the same time? If so, you literally need to get a life. Forget the dream about stuff being free and stop advocating it. It's idiocy. It's bigotry. If you want to put your skills to work and you need to support a family, your work and work results can't be free. Math is the immediate result and the manifestation of what your learned and what you know. How much is that worth? Nothing? Think again.
With best wishes for your future
Cardan
Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
"Software is the immediate result and the manifestation of what your learned and what you know. How much is that worth? Nothing? Think again."
I wonder what this guy thinks about air. I mean, it's free, but pretty important to him. One could argue that while it's free, it's worth more than all the gold in the world, simply becasue without it, he's gonna die.
Granted that air wasn't developed by an outside party, but the analogy still holds (sort of). If this kid were to develop something very useful and gave it away as open source, His contribution would be appreciated everywhere, and worth far more than they paid for it.
So the kid isn't an uber-capitalist out to make billions on his products. So what? He wants to make software that everyone can enjoy, review, and improve. Money isn't his goal in life. Personally I think that says more about his character than anything else.
So far no one has explained to me why books shouldn't be "free" and humans should.
Yeah, because young guys hate meaningless relationships and sex. I am sure those guys were going to bars with their lab coats on to find their one true love. Give me a break.
Stop with open source?
Behold, my confused fellow...
Cluestick upside head.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
> You're giving away half of what you have to offer. They'll find someone who will be cheaper to do the other half.
:)
They'll find someone who will pay to do the other half?
Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
nothing produced by Microsoft and given away for zero charge will run on anything except a Windows operating system.
Wrong. Microsoft releases several free programs for an assortment of Unix (most importantly Mac OS X) and also MS DOS.
Their motivations are still always greedy, of course. For example, one reason they invested so much into the Macintosh Internet Explorer was to prevent AOL's Mozilla program from becoming more popular, and undermining MS's web-client domination.
If I could get my employer to pay me 99 cents an hour per pound I would be a very happy camper
Offtopic hypothetical: you're at an accident on a street. traffic is backed up a bit, and the left lane is blocked off. Everyone gets into the right lane in an orderly fashion, except for one guy who drives up past everybody in the left lane all the way up to the cones, then merges in front of you at the last second. Is he the fool, or are you?
He isn't a fool, but he is an asshole.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
You can be CEO of a nonprofit and have a $1,000,000 salary.
;)
so you're the guy sending me all that spam
#!/usr/bin/english
Wow, it's so clear now. Thank you, Mr. Clemens !
>|<*:=
You've obviously never had a girlfriend, have you?
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
Employer: "Next!"
Candidate #2: "Hi. I wrote Samba."
Employer: "Welcome aboard Mr Tridgell!"