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JBoss Founder Hard-Nosed About Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hand-that-feeds dept.

Infonaut writes "In this Business Week interview, JBoss founder Marc Fleury refers to "hobbyist" Open Source contributors and makes the case that "no one is going to work for free." Fleury dismisses people who contribute for something other than money as "Hari Krishnas" and makes reference to the "hippie dream". Fleury's sharp, profit-focused approach has brought him success, but isn't it in some sense built on the shoulders of the hippies and hobbyists he seems to scorn?"

3 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It is nice to know that altruistic and talented people can remain optimistic despite such public and prominent cynicism.

    Let him and his kind fall back into obscurity.

    --AC

  2. It makes sense by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Beating up on hippies makes a lot of sense, because mostly they don't know how to fight, and are pacifists. Thus, you are very likely to win, or at least not get hurt if you don't win. So, a business model based on beating up on hippies would seem to be a low-risk proposition.

    --
    You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
  3. He's a clueless corporate robot by Simonetta · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This guy sounds like a totally clueless corporate jerk.
    A major reason that programmers created open source was to be able to have control of the tools that they use to create profit for their employers.
    Computer systems are arbitrary and very complicated. Yet companies use programmers and information system professionals for ad-hoc tasks only to discard them like used tissues when the project is working. On the next project, the programmer is expected to master a completely different set of symbols (an operating system interface) before starting to do productive work.
    Open source software is a means by which the productive members (i.e. the people who actually do the real work) of the IT community are forcing a standardization of corporate systems in order to greatly increase their productivity. Mastering one operating system means that the programmer/analyst/specialist doesn't have to waste time learning a new system with every project. Making the complicated software free forces the corporations to adopt the new standard OS on 'bottom-line' grounds. Having the source available and adaptable creates huge feedback loops which is the best way to find and remove deep bugs that always arise in a project of this magnitude.
    This guy and all others like him in the managerial suites prove once again that engineers, programmers, and system specialists are simply smarter than they are. He should really 'just shut the fuck up' (a cute American expression meaning to restrain yourself from public displays of stupidity) and give quiet thanks that the people more intelligent than him continue to permit this illusion of managerial superiority.