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The Business Value of Open Source Examined
jg21 writes "'Open source developers have the opportunity to influence technology that is being used by companies and do it on a global scale in a way that cannot occur with any other type of software,' contends Bill Claybrook, writing in the current issue of LinuxWorld. The article is a historical overview of the open source revolution, starting in the 80s with the GNU Project, BSD, and TCP/IP and then moving into the 90s with Red Hat, StarOffice, and coming right into the 21st century with the Ximian Desktop and Sun's Linux-based Sun Java Desktop System."
"I'm sorry but far too many of you programmers seem to have this very "black and white" view of the world. "
I assume you are talking about the "new economy" where the "old" economic rules doesn't exists.
I'm sorry to break it to you but the dot-com bubble has burst. Several years ago.
You can't spent countless man-hours on man-hour intensive kind of labour (lots of manhours=high cost) like software development and make money on some low-margin side channel like customization services or support.
"A lot of OSS contributors are in full-time jobs on commercial projects and just work on OSS in spare time. "
That is true. They are giving something away for free that kills another persons livehood. Of cause, someone else is making something free that kills their own livehood as well.
"Others are probably university students working on programming papers for degrees. "
See above.
"A few maybe have sponsorship from their companies to work within OSS projects. "
A handfull are.
"If you're a programmer who's motivated by money then fine, what's the problem? Go work in the commercial sector, get paid and pay the mortgage. "
I assume he does that but the commercial sector is highly affected by free products. It also drives the offshoring trend since lower labour cost is needed to counter marketloss to people who work for free.
"But please don't judge everyone else by your own standards - the OSS community is blessed with a great number of altruistic people who program for fame or just because they enjoy doing it.
Deal with it. "
No one has any godgiven right to live on a specific line of career and anyone can give away their own work for free of cause. But don't kid yourself, it does hurt everyone working in the industry.