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Economic Crisis Will Eliminate Open Source
An anonymous reader writes "The economic crisis will ultimately eliminate open source projects and the 'Web 2.0 free economy,' says Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur. Along with the economic downturn and record job loss, he says, we will see the elimination of projects including Wikipedia, CNN's iReport, and much of the blogosphere. Instead of users offering their services 'for free,' he says, we're about to see a 'sharp cultural shift in our attitude toward the economic value of our labor' and a rise of online media businesses that reward their contributors with cash. Companies that will survive, he says, include Hulu, iTunes, and Mahalo. 'The hungry and cold unemployed masses aren't going to continue giving away their intellectual labor on the Internet in the speculative hope that they might get some "back end" revenue,' says Keen."
Funny, I just passed by some article someplace saying the exact opposite. mmm where was that?
Stupid.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
I agree. I just read some of this tripe and I'd like to punch this guy right in his arrogant face.
What, for free? That's valuable labor!
BARMAN: Are you serious sir? I mean, do you really think the world's going to end this afternoon?
FORD PREFECT: Yes. In just over one minute-and-thirty-five seconds.
BARMAN: Well isn't there anything we can do?
FORD PREFECT: No, nothing.
BARMAN: Well I always thought we were meant to lie down and put a paper bag over our head or something.
FORD PREFECT: If you'd like, yes.
BARMAN: Well, will that help?
FORD PREFECT: No. Excuse me I've got to find my friend.
BARMAN: Very well then. Last orders please!
It does make perfect sense, because the only reason some one would ever possibly contribute to open source, spending countless tireless hours writing code in their free time, is some "speculative hope that they might get some 'back end' revenue."
You should have SEEN what Linux and PHP were planning for the next release, right before the bubble burst. Let me just say two words: Flying Cars.
What, for free? That's valuable labor!
I'll count it as 1 hour of community service off of my sentence!
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
ARTHUR DENT: I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
No, he makes a valid point. In a recession, there are fewer jobs. The people who don't have jobs have much better things to do than differentiate themselves from their competition by contributing to a public project, and companies have so much spare money that they don't need to reduce costs with open source joint ventures.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Statistically speaking, the world doesn't end all that often.
Can someone please mod this story as flame bait?
Why, it's not flame bait any more than saying that women will no longer marry out of free will in this economic crisis, instead preferring to charge for sex, cleaning, and cooking. After all, that is what married women do, right?
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
But check out Wikipedia:
Let's face it -- he's no amateur on this score. The guy knows something about failed Internet based industry, as he's founded at least two, and worked at four or five more.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
If you want page numbers, I can dig them up when I get home.
Wrong site, silly willy. On /. we mod, not dig.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I will donate $25 to his punch fund.
I agree. I just read some of this tripe and I'd like to punch this guy right in his arrogant face.
What, for free? That's valuable labor!
Yeah, but it's a labor of love.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
And, on the off chance it turns out to be true, can we mod REALITY as flamebait?
Isn't it great how he posts this analysis on a site that gives it away for free?
It's a good thing, too. I was just about install Linux on my laptop. Whew! Now that I know that Linux and other bits of Open Source software can't weather an economic downturn like private companies, I'm switching to BeOS.
Ass.
The ______ Agenda
And why can't people comprehend that folks write this stuff to sell books and make money?
Wait - so he's writing because he IS a greedy bastard? And yet some people write because they are not. There's something almost Zen about that.
And why can't folks comprehend that Slashdot posts it in order to get page views and make money?
To be fair - Slashdot posted this kind of stuff well before page views made them money. Granted, they probably do make money doing it now. So maybe they are both and neither. Ohh. More Zen.
Or maybe I just need more coffee.
Go get 'em, boy !!
Segmentation Fault (Core Dumped)
[ Google Ads: Great deals on Microsoft Debugger! ]
-bash-3.00$ _
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
FORD PREFECT: Especially since today's wednesday.
I had just installed this Ubuntu thing, and I was starting to like it. It even came complete with a office suite, vector and raster graphic editors, and even games.
Now I guess I'll need to buy a copy of Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, the Adobe suite, anti-virus stuff, and more. Damn it!
factor 966971: 966971
Not in Sydney, you insensitive clod!
Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
So, what's the economic case for sex? What market good does it do?
Child labor. Everything is done for economic value, so when I have kids they're going to run big hamster wheels in my basement to power the house. And when they get tired they can sit and make products that I'll sell over the internet.
Developers: We can use your help.
Some men are women.:)
Some men can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Unless they're given
one...
million...
dollars!
No, that never happened, and you must now report to the Ministry of Corporate Truth to correct your obvious insanity.
The enemies of Democracy are
Woah, hang on! Thats a Union job. You can't just waltz in there and start swinging. Hired Thugs local 101 will be all over you like white on rice.
That sinking feeling deep in your gut when you KNOW you screwed up bad summed up with: {head desk} {head desk}
Am I the only one that wants to see a Batman / Austin Powers crossover?
Hell yes. Even furries think that's weird.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
FOX ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Am I the only one that wants to see a Batman / Austin Powers crossover? Hell yes. Even furries think that's weird.
Think about it. Dr Evil could finally get his million dollars only to watch the Joker burn it. It works on so many levels.
Was the great depression even "that bad" or are the stories of stock traders jumping out of windows greatly exaggerated ?
From what I've been reading, it sounds like that would probably be the best thing for the economy.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
It is official. Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because
*BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its
long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
You are totally misinformed. Today, the blogs provide
more accurate information than the 4th Estate.
Except Slashdot of course, that posted this major FUD article.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
No, that's the ministry of political truthiness.... Get it right.... The Ministry of Corporate Truth is MSNBC, where you will be taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers....
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
In the coming economic hardships, no one will be willing to troll for free anymore!
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
I think they were aiming for a dupe and accidentally came out fair and balanced.
What fucking lower class mother three has the time or energy for two hours of blog maintenance every night? Maybe if her kids are all over the age of 16 she might have the time, but if most or all are younger than that, especially if they're under say, 10, she's got her hands full taking care of them and likely does not have the time or energy to devote to this fantasy blog maintenance.
I'm from what's probably considered an upper-income middle class household with one 4 year old, and I can barely find the time to keep the house up and going let alone spend 15 hours a week keeping some online presence going.
Now I can see a true upper class mom doing this, but that presumes her upper-class income provides her with a lot of time-saving luxuries, like a live-in nanny who does the cooking, cleaning and childcare. But this woman is even worse off in the future economic nightmare, since her "survival skills" are limited to getting to the gym often so that her ass stays MILFy enough to keep her husband's income around.
Or the joker could get dr. evil in bed for the low, low cost of ...
One of the problems with human beings is that we extrapolate from our own circumstances to make conclusions that we think apply to everyone. "I'm doing great, so lots of people are doing great"
Quit picking on John McCain!